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1 



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CONDITIONS IN THE 
COAL MINES OF COLORADO 



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IN THE MATTER OF THE HEARING BEFORE A 
SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON MINE^ ^ 

AND MINING, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
SIXTY-THIRD CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, PUR- ^ "*^ 1^ 

SUANT TO HOUSE RESOLUTION 387, AUTHORIZ- 
ING AND DIRECTING THE COMMITTEE TO MAKE 
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CONDITIONS 
IN THE COAL FIELDS OF COLORADO 



BRIEF FOR THE STRIKING MINERS 



E. P. COSTIGAN and 
JAME^I^ H. BREWSTER 
HORACE N. HAWKINS Special Counsel 

Attorney for the United Mine WorUrs Before the Congressional Committee 






WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1914 



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D. OF D, 

JUN 29 £914 



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GOjNTE]N"TS. 



Page. 

The resolution authorizing this investigation 5 

The general causes of the strike 5 

Mine'owners ' ignorance of conditions and lack of sense of personal responsibility . 6 

Mine operators ' system of feudalism 11 

Mine operators' disregard of the rights of society 12 

The denial by the operators to their employees of the right to organize and bar- 
gain collectively 14 

Union incorporation 17 

The coal monopoly 18 

The modern attitude toward freedom of contract 18 

The 1910 strike 20 

The 1913 strike — Specific causes of the strike 20 

The semimonthly pay day 21 

Illegal discrimination against union men 22 

Blacklisting 25 

The eight-hour law 26 

The truck system — Scrip— Company stores 27 

Checkweighman and short weights 29 

The matter of wages : 31 

Preventable mine accidents and deaths 32 

Workers" compensation for accident and death, and coroners' juries 33 

Private detectives as mine guards — The making of private war 35 

Violence during the strike 36 

Provocation of strikers at the Ludlow tent colony 37 

The attack on the Forbes tent colony 40 

Other instances of violence 41 

The constitutional right to bear arms 41 

The militia 42 

Violation of Federal law 46 

United States postal regulations 46 

A system of peonage ' , . . . 47 

Violation of State law prohibiting false advertising 52 

Deplorable general conditions 53 

Keport of Federal grand jury 54 

The denial of social, industrial, and political justice 55 

Conclusion — Suggested legislation 58-60 

3 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 



In the Matter of the Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the 
Committee on Mines and Mining, House of Representatives, 
Sixty-third Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to House 
Resolution 387, Authorizing and Directing the Committee 
TO Make an Investigation of the Conditions in the Coal 
Fields of Colorado. 



BRIEF FOR THE STRIKING MINERS. 

The resolution authorizing and directing this investigation is as 
follows : 

Resolved, That the House Committee on Mines and Mining is hereby authorized and 
directed to make a thorough and complete investigation of the conditions existing in 
the coal fields in the counties of Las Animas, Huerfano, Fremont, Grand, Routt, 
Boulder, Weld, and other counties in the State of Colorado, and in and about the cop- 

Ser mines in the counties of Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon in the State of 
[ichigan, for the purpose of ascertaining — 

First. AMiether or not any system of peonage has been or is being maintained in 
said coal or copper fields. 

Second. AATiether or not postal services and facilities have been or are being inter- 
fered with or obstructed in said coal or copper fields; and if so, by whom. 

Third. Whether or not the immigration laws of this country have been or are being 
violated in said coal or copper fields; and if so, by whom. 

Fourth. Investigate and report all facts and circumstances relating to the charge 
that citizens of the United States have been arrested, tried or convicted contrary to 
or in violation of the Constitution or the laws of the United States. 

Fifth. Investigate and report whether the conditions existing in said coal fields in 
Colorado and in said copper fields in Michigan have been caused by agreements and 
combinations entered into contrary to the laws of the United States for the purpose of 
controlling the production, sale, and transportation of the coal and copper of these 
fields. 

Sixth. Investigate and report whether or not firearms, ammunition, and explosives 
have been shipped into the said coal and copper fields with the purpose to exclude 
the products of the said fields from competitive markets in interstate trade; and if so, 
by whom, and by whom paid for. 

Seventh. If any or all of these conditions exist, the causes leading up to said condi- 
tions. 

In the foregoing resolution the causes of any evil conditions which 
may exist are referred to in the last clause. We believe, however, 
that it is better, from all points of view, to discuss the causes before 
we consider effects. It is both historically and logically more appro- 
priate to do so. In considering these we propose to take up first cer-' 
tain causes of a very general nature, but upon which we believe all 
the others depend. 

THE GENERAL CAUSES OF THE STRIKE. 

The causes of Colorado's industrial war in its coal-mining districts 
are not of recent origin. xVmong the principal ones — long-standing 

5 



b CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLOEADO. 

and fundamental — are the ignorance of the owners of the great coal- 
producing properties concerning the actual conditions under which 
their employees hve and labor; the lack of any proper sense of per- 
sonal responsibility on the part of those owners for what is wrong in 
those conditions; the maintenance by the coal-mining operators of a 
modern system of monopolistic feudalism with many of the evil fea- 
tures of the old feudaUsm, but without man}^ of those features which, 
made it somewhat beneficent; the insistence b}' the operators upon 
their right to conduct a vast coal-producmg business — a business in 
reality affected with a public interest — regardless of how their con- 
duct may affect society at large, and as if it were a small private 
business; the unwillingness on the part of the operators to concede 
to their employees the right of effective organization, while them- 
selves maintaining a complete combination and organization. From 
these underlying causes arise all those more immediate causes which 
the workers assign as special grievances. 

MINE owners' ignorance OF CONDITIONS AND THE LACK OF A SENSE 
OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. 

Hardly anywhere can be found a more forcible illustration of cer- 
tain peculiar characteristics of our modern industrial system than is 
afforded by the testimony of some of the leading Colorado coal 
operators. Prominent among these characteristics are the merging 
of all personal responsibility in the corporate entity, and the lack of 
real knowledge on the part of those who receive the profits as to how 
it is with the wage worker. Many of the evils of this industrial w^ar 
can be attributed to this ignorance and lack of a sense of individual 
personal responsibility. 

The Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. produces 40 per cent of the coal 
produced in Colorado, and Mr. John D. Rockefeller owns 40 per cent 
of this company. As there is no evidence that any one person con- 
trols any greater interest in the coal mines of the State, the testimony 
of Mr. Rockefeller's son and representative is important. 

Mr. John D. Rockefeller, jr., a director of the Colorado Fuel & 
Iron Co., and the representative of his father, who owns such a large 
interest in it, has not found it necessary to attend a directors' meeting 
for 10 years, because he is kept ''fully informed" by President Wel- 
born and Vice President Bowers, who is also treasurer of the com- 
pany and chairman of its executive board. Mr. Rockefeller does not 
even know all his fellow directors (p. 2847), nor does he know who, 
next to his father, is the largest stockholder, because "the books and 
stock accounts are kept in the West" (p. 2845). When we turn to 
the West, we find that Messrs. Welborn and Bowers know less, if 
possible, about such matters than does Mr. Rockefeller in the East, 
for Mr. Welborn can not even guess who the largest stockholder is 
(p. 529), and Mr. Bowers, the treasurer of the company and Mr. 
Rockefeller's "hired man" and representative, is wholly ignorant of 
Mr. Rockefeller's holdings in the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., though 
he remembers in detail his intersts in other corporations with which 
we are not at all concerned (pp. 2439, 2440). From Messrs. Welborn 
and Bowers Mr. Rockefeller says he gets his information, and he will 
stand by the ofiicers of the company (pp. 2846, 2852), as he wrote to 
Mr. Bowers, "to the end" (p. 2444). 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 7 

Air. Bowers testified that 'Sill the matters of importance I take up 
with" Mr. Rockefeller (p. 2441), and Mr. Rockefeller affirms that 
this strike fight is for "a principle we are standing for at any cost" 
(p. 2887). Wlien one considers the terrible cost of tlie fight in blood 
and treasiu'e, he has a right to expect that such an emphatic declara- 
tion is the result of deeply settled conviction, based upon actual 
knowledge which gives the man making the declaration the right to 
affirm before the world without fear or shame — ''my conscience 
entirely acquits me" (p. 2858). 

Air. Rockefeller relies upon Messrs. Welborn and Bowers, because 
they are ''in constant touch with the employees of the company" 
(p. 2883), and although he has been "fully aware" of conditions in 
the company mmes which are reported as "shocking," he has not 
thought it necessary to do anything more than get reports from the 
president and treasurer (p. 2852). These officers, however, are far 
irom "being in touch with the employees." They themselves rely 
in this very big business upon the reports of subordinates. President 
Welborn's principal subordinate in the fuel department of the com- 
pany is General Alanager Weitzel, who himself is a very busy man, 
and receives reports from assistant managers and mine superintend- 
ents, does not visit the mines "frequently," although he says, "I 
get around when I can" (p. 1793). Mr. Welborn, to be sure, has a 
"personal acquaintance" with the company's mine superintendents 
"except possibly one or two" (p. 498), though he does not talk with 
the coal miners (p. 527), not even having met them personally when 
they were discussing the strike last September (p. 544). 

In this manner knowledge of the miner and of the actual conditions 
under which he fives and labors ascends from those subordinate com- 
pany employees just above him, through a series of reports to the 
managing officers, and finahy to the owners, and there is lacking any 
real understanding of the human relationship existing between the 
man who produces and the man who o^ms, and the reports themselves 
fail to touch upon many points of importance to the miner, as they 
go through this sifting and refining process. 

Under such a system it is not surprising that the real owner does 
not know the truth; hence we find Mr. Rockefeller persuaded that the 
miaers of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. had no grievances and brought 
no complaints (p. 2884), and he states that ''the records show that the 
conditions have been admirable." His method of interpreting records 
is illustrated by his view of that record in the Las Animas County 
coroner's book: ''Accident; fall of rock ia mine; internal injury; pel- 
vic region; no relatives and damn few friends" (see p. 1831), which 
he regards as ' ' an expression of very threat sympathy in the language 
of the westerner." 

The record continues: 

Mr. Evans. You think it might be construed to imply very great sympathy for him? 

:Mr. Rockefeller. Yes. That would probably be the miner's way of saying, "We 
are mighty sorry that there were no friends." 

Mjt. Byrnes. This record was made by the coroner, not by a miner. 

Mr. Rockefeller. The coroner, of course, would be a western man, would he 
not (p. 2281)? 

Even the operators' chief counsel, a western man of this very same 
Las Animas County, and one who is not shown by this whole record 
to be over sensitive or too tender-hearted, expressed surprise at the 
coroner's annotation (p. 1831). 



8 COirWTIOlfS I>' THE COAL MIXES OF COLOBADO. 

Though Mr. BowCTs : :p with Mr. Rockefeller '*all the matters 

of importance" (p. 2441 . ;::.c latter has not the ""shghtest idea'' what 
the miner's annual wage is (p. 2856), nor what the compaoT chai«res 
him for rent (p. 2857) ; so also he '^has not the slightest idea'' whether 
any of the company's money has been spent for arms and ammunition 
or for the importation of machiiie guns, or for the employoieiit of 
BaldwtQ-Felts detectives, though "not long s'mce^' Mr. Bowers had 
told him that the cost of the stnke this year to the company "would 
be in the vicinity of a miDion dollars '' (p. 2867) : and while not having 
*'the slightest idea'* on these subjects, Mr. Rockefeller assures the 
committee that he knows the money "has been spent in proper ways 
to conserve the interests of the employees/' though we io Xew York 
can not "burden our minds with that detail" (p. 2868). Mr. Rocke- 
feQer selezts "the highest minded" men he can fiod (p. 2854), and he 
says he can not find, if he "were to look this country over^ two men in 
i^ose judgment, in whose fairness, and whose humanity'* he would 
have greater confidence than in Messrs. Welbom and Bowers (p. 2854). 

'^ffigh-mindedness" and ""humanity."' 

The examination of the company's president shows the following 
question and answer (p. 553): 

Q. And do yoa feel tibat in lejectingflns soggestiimfM' a confeience made in Angost 
la^ — do yoa feel no lespcmability wbaterira- f« Iflie s^beecraent sad events and low ol 
n -^7? — A. None ^diatev»; none frhatevcr. 

The chosen representative of several thousani st^jckliolders prefers 
machine guns manned by murderous mercenaries to a conference 
with the representatives of several thousand employees who belong 
to the only organization open to them as coal miners. In the eyes of 
the operators this is high-minded and humane, because they have 
persuaded themselves into beheving that "it is a principle we are 
standing for at any cost" (p. 2887), and so Mr. Rockefeller says: 

I: is ' T ::.-i3e I have sncL i r : : -~ ^- :z.--rT=t in dioae men and sJA. woifceiB that I 
rx T ; -'>ind by the p«:_ ' ~— - - - -rz. oaffined by l4ie offioexs $>nd ubich. 

ettiiti i..' ii.c bO be fii^ la^. i.1.^ ^TT^-, i -^ _r greatest interest of the emplo :"" of the 
oonqpany (p. 2875). 

And that — 

* * * as part owneis oi tiie piopeity, our inteiest in the labonng men in this 
coontzy ia ao immenfle, ao deep, so ]»c&Mind t^t we stand leady to lose ev^y cent we 
put in that ccnopany lathra* t£an see the men we ha^e employed thiown out of wcxk 
and ha^e imposed npon l^m condidone winch aze not ol tbrar seeking and which 
nraOfeer they nor we can see aze in onr inteie^ (p. 28T4). 

And this principle for which they are fighting at such great cost 
against their former employees is "'to allow them to have the privi- 
lege of determining the conditions under which they shall work" 
fp. 2875). A Uttle before he had said (p. 28.59). "many of these 
foreigners coming to this country would nave very httle knowledge 
of what the best thing was for them to do." 

The real significance of this statement is clear when we recollect that 
many of the strike breakers of 10 years ago are the strikers of to-day; 
these "foreisrners" have learned the bitter lesson and know now what 
is best for them to do. But the operators are fighting so that "the 
privilege of determining the conditions under which they shall work" 
shall sml belong to such men as the pitiable Pittsburgh strike breakers 
who appeared before the committee — men in whom Mr. Rockefeller's 
interest *'is so immense; so deep, so profound." These Pittsburgh 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. U 

strike breakers, brought here by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., were 
alleged to have signed employment contracts in Pittsburgh, but as 
the committee well remembers, many of them could not read these 
contracts; many had not signed them, and few could understand 
them. These workingmen, contracting in accord with Mr. Rocke- 
feller's great principle of freedom, had no voice whatever in "deter- 
mining the conditions under which they should work," and, indeed, 
so grossly were they deceived as to those conditions that when they 
discovered what they really were they escaped from the mines over 
the hills in large numbers, when they were not restrained by force or 
fear imposed by the agents of these advocates of the freedom of 
contract. 

But, says Mr. Rockefeller, we are fighting for 90 per cent of our 
workers ' ' who have never expressed any dissatisfaction with the terms 
and conditions of their labor there all these years" (p. 2863), and who 
have lived with the operators like a "happy family" until "this 
trouble came in from the outside" (p. 2887). 

Mr. Bowers, an '^outsider" in Colorado, having his residence at 
Bingham ton, N. Y., was ^iven the important offices in the Colorado 
Fuel & Iron Co. of vice president, treasurer, and chairman of the 
executive board, because his '^ experience in organization and man- 
agement was very helpful to Mr. Welborn" (Rockefeller, p. 2845) ; and 
the majority of tlie board of directors and the chief owners of that 
greatest Colorado companv are ^^ outsiders " ; hence we ought to hear 
no more from operators about ^'outsiders" whose '' experience in or- 
ganization and management" has been availed of by the miners. 

Mr. Rockefeller seems to believe that 90 per cent of this "happy 
family" always have been satisfied, and that 10 per cent forced all 
those v.-ho struck into striking against theii* will, and he tells us that 
*'if the government had more adequately protected these working 
men in their right to work as thev like, this strike would not have 
happened" (p. 2887). 

For the present we shall take simply the testimony of Mr. Welborn, 
from which it appears that Mr. Rockefeller has been deceived on this 
subject. Mr. Welborn states that the company's normal number of 
miners is 6,000. There were on February 13, 1914, according to his 
statement, 3,000 miners at work, iind of these from 1,000 to 1,200 
were imported strike-breakers (p. 530) ; hence nearly five months after 
the strike was called only fro in 30 to 33 per cent of the company's 
former employees were at work, and it had been necessary to import 
these hundreds of strike breakers of the character that the comm.ittee 
saw, although the '^governm.ent" by its militia and deputy sheriffs, 
with the help of the operators' machine guns, had for months been 
trying to break the strike. 

Mr. Rockefeller admits that a man frequently may be deceived 
(p. 2877). He has been deceived, it would seem, in most matters 
connected with this great coal company; deceived partly by himself 
and partly by others. Mr. Rockefeller, for example, "hopes" that 
there are not any saloons on the company's property (p. 2868), while 
it is well known to everyone else that there are. He does not know 
whether or not there are high schools in his company's closed towns, 
nor does he know how those towns are managed as to officials, taxes, 
etc. (p. 2869). He has not corresponded with Mr. Bowers or Mr. 
Welborn about miners' "living conditions" or "working conditions" 



10 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLOKADO. 

or general welfare, though we must remember always that Mr. Bowers 
takes up all matters of importance with Mr. Rockefeller (p. 2441). 

What are these matters of importance ? The only matter of im 
portance to the miner that Mr. Bower seems to have taken up with 
Mr. Rockefeller is the vital principle which Mr. Rockefeller says 
(p. 2874) is similar to that upon which "the War of the Revolution 
was carried on," and that is the principle that Ledrianowski (621), 
Minnitti (1043), Spino (1249), Kata (1454), and hundreds of the same 
sort, shall be free to contract as individuals with the great combina- 
tion of coal companies. 

Americans have generally understood that the War of the Revo- 
lution was fought because nonresident ovv^ers and rulers attempted 
to repress and exploit people whom they did not know, and did not 
try to know; whom they supposed to be uneducated and not united 
in sympathy; people who might have been dealt with, but who, be- 
ing spurned as well as oppressed, finally revolted. So taxation with- 
out representation might well be dwelt on at length should we fully 
consider the economics applicable to the coal monopolist who may 
at will levy tribute on both the public and his wage workers, heeding 
the complaints of neither because the business is his business. 

As Mr. Rockefeller has been deceived by others on many m^atters, 
so he has deceived himself into beUeving that actually he is contend- 
ing for the principle of freedom of contract for the worker. This does 
not exist in the simpkst matters in his own company's camps. The 
company stores Rx th^ prices and th'^> company fixes the house rent, 
because, as Mr. Rockefeller says, " ordinarily in commercial operations 
the man who has the goods to sell fixes the price" (p. 2889). And 
who fixes the price at which the miner must sell his labor, the only 
thing he has to sell, and mthout the sale of which he must starve 
to-morrow ? How has Mr. Rockefeller deluded himself into believing 
that he is fighting for the workers ? He truly says, v/e are frequently 
deceived, but on this matter no one is deceived but himself, and even 
he ought not, as an intelligent man, to permit at this day such a 
deception by a worn-out fallacy. The simple truth is that all Mr. 
Rockefeller's ideas in industrial matters are founded upon an erroneous 
economic basis — the primary sacredness of property. 

The really important questions— the questions greater than '' re- 
sults" in the shape of dividends and bond interest — which are con- 
nected Avith the managemrnt of this great property, are seemingly too 
vast for its owners to deal with. To some of these questions bearing 
upon the proper relation betweeen employer and employee, on which 
their ignorance is manifest, we have adverted. But there are others. 
Asked as to wh^ ther the owner of a coal mine has the right to do what 
he pleases with the property, Mr. Rockefeller says, ^'He has not given 
any thought to it" (p. 2887), and the following question and answer 
show Mr. Welborn's position : 

Q. Do you think that society has no interest in the mining of that coal, that it is 
your business? — A. I am very sure it is my business (p. 537). 

This ''big business," is in reality, too big. ''We can not pretend 
to follow the business ourselves," says Mr. Rockefeller (p. 2846), and 
when he was asked whether a director should be responsible, he re- 
phed: 

In these days, where interests are so diversified and numerous, of course it would 
be impossible for any man to be personally responsible (p. 2851). 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLOKADO. 11 

It is this evasion of personal responsibility, this putting a man in 
as the owners' ''hired man," ''over whose head you can not go and 
get results" (p. 2866), that is one great cause of our industrial 
troubles. 

If a business is too big to be managed with responsibility fixed on 
those who receive the "results," it liad better be made smaller, but 
it is hard to give up the " results." It is recorded how the ricli young 
man went away sorrowful when his highest duty was pointed out 
to him — "for he had great possessions." 

There being an absence in modern industry of tJiat personal rela- 
tionship which could formerly exist between employer and employee, 
and which resulted in correlative responsibilities, and there being 
now a system in which impersonal capital regards impersonal labor 
simply from the business point of view, there must be an organiza- 
tion of labor in order that labor may meet capital somewhere nearly 
upon equal terms, just as formerly the personal employee met the 
personal employer more nearly upon an equality. The union, there- 
fore, siiould be encouraged rather than discouraged and fought. The 
worker, lacking also under our modern system anything like the former 
personal relationship, needs the union because he is a man — still a man, 
though taking his place as a cog in the machinery of "big business." 
Moreover, the union has as one of its aims work in education and 
citizenship, which an owner like Mr. Rockefeller assumes his agents 
wiU perform without his inquiry or direction. 

THE MINE operators' SYSTEM OF FEUDALISM. 

Colorado presents an instance of modern fe'adalism. Until there 
is both political and industrial democracy, and the old order is done 
away with, there can be no permanent content. The ancient feudal- 
ism was based, it is true, upon agriculture: the modern feudalism, 
as illustrated in this instance, is based upon mining, but this is an 
hnmaterial difference. Private monopolistic ownership or control 
of the land, from the products of which existence was maintained by 
the labor of the mpmy for the few, was one great characteristic of the 
old feudalism as it is of the modern, and whether the land product is 
coal or grain is of little consequence. The analogy between the old 
feudalism and this modern sort is surprising when one considers what 
progress, economically, politically, and socially, has been jnade in 
general since the former flourished. There is the political sovereignty 
as weU as the ownership of ])roperty; the miniature state within the 
larger state. There is the hired military establishment, and there is 
the private war. But those living under the modern scheme are at a 
disadvantage in this: that there is practically now more dependence 
upon arbitrar;/ will than there was under the old s}"stem where cus- 
tom was recognized as giving certaiu rights. Here are incorporated 
towns, every foot of which is owned by the overlord corporations; 
no one without permission from the overlords' agents may enter, 
even by a seemingly public v/ay, and in the exercise of the rights of 
national citizenship to approach the national post office. One may 
not do business in the town without similar periuission. The public 
officials of the town are the corporation servants: the postmaster is 
manager of the company store. The corporation overlord pays no 
taxes, but the inhabitants are taxed by the he ad for the maintenance 



12 COXDinOXS IX THE COAL 2»nXE5 OF COLORADO. 

of the property of the town where they may not own a home, and 
where politicai and social relatiouships are dependent on the will of 
the corporation lord. In a typical town of this sort 250 or 300 per- 
sons pav the poll tax. while for the number of inhabitants repre- 
sented by these taxpayers the company provides six saloons (pp. 
1522, 1530). In such towns poU taxes are collected by what the 
overlord operators have been wont to consider the "obnoxious 
check-off system'' (pp. 1214,1532). If, perchance, one is a little 
more mdependent than the others — has a Httle more of what ^Ir. 
Rockefeller might call the American Eevolutionary spirit — out he 
must go. Xew workmen are brought hi like herded cattle by train- 
loads, and like chattels are referred to as '•shipments" (p. 1356). 

The feudal "serf'" differed somewhat in his status from the modem 
"slave," but a legal characteristic which made the modem slave a 
chattel, rather than a person, was present with the serf — the lord 
might kill his serf and no one could bring him to justice. How 
many times has justice been done for miners killed in the mines of 
Las Animas and Huerfano Counties ? Yet in the old feudalism there 
was always an iuteresting personal relationship which our modem 
feudalism lacks. A gi'eat impei^onal, iavisible, soulless and heart'- 
less beiag is now the feudal lord that deals with tenants and servants. 
Orders emanate from a distant city and finally reach the man at the 
bottom. The men at the top never see nor know the men whose 
labor forms three-fourths of the whole hidustrial structure. Thou- 
sands of men work in the bowels of the earth as the servants of thou- 
sands of other men, and the personal human relationship of the old 
feudalism nowhere exists, but the evils of the system remain. And 
yet the captains of industry speak of this fabric, made up thus of 
thousands, as then- private business. 

The call for labor organization to meet the needs of the worker 
in such conditions is answered by the machine gun. The natural 
tendencies of feudahsm at its worst are given full play and anarchy 
results as hi the time of Stephen, when, as the chronicler says, "Every 
man did that which was good in his own eyes." 

Tndy does the chief spokesman of the Colorado coal operators call 
himself " old-fashioned.'' He should have lived in the middle ages. 

THE MIXE operators" DISREGARD OF THE RIGHTS OF SOCIETY. 

The view of the coal operators that the business of mining coal is 
whoUy their own business, as to which they need consult neither 
society nor then' workers, is wholly untenable. An industry which 
produces and markets one of the necessaries of life, which employs 
thousands of men upon whom are dependent thousands of other per- 
sons,- which is given special corporate privileges by the State, which 
is practically monopolistic, is in reahty a business affected with a 
public interest exactly as are those that we more definitely have 
regarded as public utilities. Society is not only interested in the 
uninterrupted operation of such a business, but is deeply interested 
in the conduct of the business on economic and social lines that are 
just. 

It perhaps may truly be said that hi a democracy which is real and 
not merely one in form, no business can be conducted ^vithout regard 
to the social duties of its manager and owner: but. at any rate, by 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 13 

warfare in these larger industries the piibhc loss and suffering, direct 
and indirect, are too great and grave to warrant those who control 
them in permitting such warfare for any selfish reasons. The con- 
tinuance of conditions unfair in any degree to the worker leads to such 
warfare. We shall later point out in detail what unfair conditions 
have existed in the coal-mining industry of Colorado. We are now 
referring to a broad general principle as to which at this day argument 
seems unnecessary. 

The welfare of the general public, made up of all classes, can not, in 
the case of these immense monopolistic industries dealing in the nec- 
essaries of hfe, be ignored by those who cling to the '' old-fashioned '^ 
ideas that the business is their private business. This peculiarly pri- 
vate interest works against the common good when it seeks to perpetu- 
ate the theory of economic individualism. Applying this theory — 
this great principle for which the operators are now fighting — we see 
it resulting in the importation into this State of cheap, ignorant labor- 
ers, who keep down the miners' standard of living below the proper 
level for any American workingman. 

The regulation of public utilities, which was strenuously opposed 
but a few years since, and much recent legislation in the exercise of 
the pohce power for the general welfare are based upon this principle 
that society is specially interested in certain kinds of business and that 
freedom of contract, even where it really exists, must give way to the 
best interests of the public. 

In Miller v. Oregon (208 U. S., 412) the Supreme Court says, in 
speaking of the law limiting the working hours of women (p. 422) : 

The limitations which this statute places upon her contractual powers, upon her right 
to agree Avith her employer as to the time she shall labor, are not imposed solely for her 
benefit, but also largely for the benefit of all. 

It is no novel doctrine that property of all kinds is subject in its 
use to hmitations estabUshed for the pubhc good. So long ago as 
w^hen that great lawyer. Chief Justice Shaw, decided the case of 
Commonwealth v. Alger (7 Cush., 53, 84), he stated this doctrine, as 
follows : 

We think it is a settled principle, growing out of the nature of well ordered civil 
society, that every holder of property, however absolute and unqualified may be his 
title, holds it under the implied liability that his use of it may be so regulated, that it 
shall not be injurious to the equal enjoyment of others having an equal right to the 
enjoyment of their property, nor injurious to the rights of the community. AH prop- 
erty in this Commonwealth, as well that in the interior as that bordering on tide- 
waters, is derived directly or indirectly from the Government, and held subject to 
those general regulations, which are necessary to the common good and general welfare. 
Rights of property, like all other social and conventional rights, are subject to such 
reasonable limitations in their enjoyment, as shall prevent them from being injurious, 
and to such reasonable restraints and regulations established by law as the legislature, 
under the governing and controlling power vested in them by the Constitution, may 
think necessary and expedient. 

If all employers w^ould adopt the enUghtened view that the courts 
and legislatures have taken concerning the proper restriction of the 
freedom of contract in the interests of the general good, there would 
be far more industrial peace and happiness than there is. It seems 
selfishly obstinate for any, employer to adhere, at the expense of 
society, to the out-of-date doctrines as to private business and free- 
dom of contract, when, in fact, his business is not private, and when 
his free contractor is at such an economic disadvantage as the miner 
is in deahng as an individual with the mining corporation. 



14 CO>sDITIOXS IX THE COAL MJXES OF COLOEADO. 

THE DENIAL BY THE OPEEATORS TO THEIE EMPLOYEES OF THE EIGHT 
TO OEGAXIZE AND BAEGAIX COLLECTIVELY. 

It must be apparent to even the most casual observer of our 
modern industrial system, and especially apparent to anyone who 
has attended the hearings before this committee, that some organi- 
zation is absolutely essential to the miners' weKare. The history 
of Colorado shows that this welfare ought not to be left simply in the 
hands of the coal operators, and the comparison between the union 
men who have appeared before the committee and the imported 
strike breakers who have also appeared is of itself a most cogent argu- 
ment for imionization. Can the unionists be blamed from any point 
of view for trving,_ by combination and organization, to prevent the 
lowering of our miners' standards of living by the introduction of 
such men ? 

Strengthening the union simply enlarges the power of the working- 
man to secure such benefits as have been sought for in Colorado by 
the miner through legislation urged by union representatives and 
through strikes, either threatened or actually called. Were this 
present strike for unionization alone, it would be justifiable. Almost 
never have the operators granted a benefit to the miners until it has 
been forced from them by the miners, backed by such organization 
as they have been able to effect. 

It was not a mere coincidence that in April, 1912, wages were ad- 
vanced and that there was at the same time a rumor of a general 
strike. The threat of the strike was necessary to get the advance. 

Just 10 years before this present strike was called in the southern 
fields, demands were made by the miners, and as they were ignored 
there was a strike. We quote these demands and something fiu'ther 
from the Report on Labor Distm-bances in the State of Colorado, 
etc., prepared under the direction of CarroU D. Wright, Commis- 
sioner of Labor. Washington. Government Printing Oflice, 1905, page 
331: 

Clause 1. That eight hours shall constitute a day's work. 

Clause 2. That all wages shall be paid semimonthly and in lawful money of the 
United States, and the scrip system be entirely abolished. 

Clause 3. An increase of 20 per cent on contract and tonnage prices, and 2,000 pounds 
shall constitute a ton. 

Clause 4. That all underground men. top men. and trappers receive the same 
wages for 8 hours as they are now recei^■ing for 9. 9k, and 10 hours and over for a day. 

Clause 5. For the better preservation of the health and lives of our craftsmen we 
demand a more adequate supply of pure air; as prescribed by the laws of the State. 

At this time the coal miners were working from 9 to 10 hours a day, the demand 
being for S. Those who worked on the contract basis were required to mine 2,400 
pounds per ton. It was demanded that 2.000 pounds should make a ton. Section 
1 of chapter 55 of the session laws of 1901. provides as follows: 

"All private corporations doing business within this State, except railroad corpora- 
tions, shall pay to their employees the wages earned each and every 15 days, in 
lawful money of the United States, or checks on banks convertible into cash on 
demand at full face value thereof, and all such wages shall be due and payable, and 
shall be paid by such corporations, on the 5th and 20th days of each calendar month 
for all such wages earned up to and within five days of the date of such payment." 

In the camps of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. and of the Victor Fuel Co. the scrip 
system operated as follows : 

When a miner desired to buy goods pre^'ious to the regular pay day he obtained 
from the mine oflBce an order on the company's store for such a valuation of merchan- 
dise as he might desire. If, upon the conclusion of his purchase, he did not wish to 
use the entire order, he was given the change in scrip. \Yith this scrip he could 



I 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 15 

buy what he might desire at any other time. At the end of the month the orders 
issued were deducted from the monthly wage and the balance was paid him in cash. 
The miners claimed that higher prices were charged in the company stores than 
in other places. They also had other grievances. They objected to being forced to 
live in the houses of the coal companies. They protested against the discharge of 
men for having joined the union. They desired, not only that 2,000 pounds of coal 
should be counted as a ton, but also that they should have their own checkweigh- 
man— one who would be a member of the union. 

It will bo scon that some of the grievances then are the grievances 
now. With the assistance of the State militia the operators broke 
that strike. There were deportations of the old workers and impor- 
tations of the new; but, though the strike was broken, some points 
were ultimateh' gained. 

The long struggle for an eight-hour law began in 1894; the law 
was demanded by the legislature; it was demanded by an over- 
whelming popular vote on a constitutional amendment, but it was 
fought by the mine owners for 20 years. This controversy was one 
of the chief causes of the bitter strike of 1903 and 1904 (pp. 74, 75). 

The general mining statute of 1913, admitted to be a good law on 
the whole, was proposed by union men and opposed by the oper- 
ators (pp. 24, 29), uJitil they saw that some such law would be enacted, 
when they conferred with the legislative committee which had it in 
charge. Since 1897 the polic}^ of the law has been expressed in a 
statute guaranteeing to employees the right to belong to labor unions. 
(L. 1897, p. 156: R. S. 1908, sec. 3925; see pages of this record 79, 
247.) ^ . \, 

There is no doubt that this statute has been violated repeatedly 
by some of the coal operating companies. We shall point out later 
the testimony in detail as to these violations. The matter is referred 
to now as showing the policy of the law of the State in recognizing 
labor organizations. But the present purpose of the coal operators — 
almost an undisguised purpose — is to destroy, so far as Colorado is 
concerned, the only union to which their employees may belong. 
Some of them will give one reason and some of them another, but 
in the purpose they are united. 

By carrying on tliis fight against the union they are trying to 
nullify the underlying principle of unionism, the right of the workers 
to deal collectively with their employers for their own protection, 
for — 

The present function, par excellence, of the labor organization is collective bargain- 
ing, and collective bargaining, it is believed, is the inevitable precursor, historically 
speaking, of the era of industrial peace. (Labor Problems, p. 227, by Adams & 
Sumner; McMillan & Co., 1910.) 

The injustice of the operators' position ought to be apparent to 
anyone who has followed this investigation and who possesses a 
sense of justice. The unreasonableness of their position is equally 
apparent. Seth Low points this out convincingly in his address as 
president of the National Civic Federation at Washington in March, 
1912, when he says: 

It appears to me utterly impossible for stockholders, united in a corporation, to 
sustain themselves in the position of claiming for themselves every privilege of com- 
bination and, at the same time, to insist upon dealing with their employees only as in- 
dividuals and to deny to them the right of collective bargaining. When a corporation 
declines to recognize a labor union, is it not doing precisely this? I understand 
perfectly that the employer would rather be entirely free to do as he pleases. The 



16 COXDinOXS IX THE COAL ^HXES OF COLOKADO. 

precise point I am trymg to make clear 15. tliat lie can not expect to be free to do as 
he pleases under the conditions of modem industry. Men are combining in all depart- 
ments of life as never before, and industry- can not possibly expect to be exempt 
from this vorld--wide tendency. The old personal relation between employer and 
employee has gone by the board, with the result that the men are, in a sense, forced 
to look after their own inter ^ts. because the impersonal emplover. perhaps withoat 
meaning to be so. is less considerate of them than the employer' was in the old days, 
when master and workman worked side by side. And. above evervthing else, titie 
spirit of democracy is in the air. so that men who are constantlv inf uencin^ the Govern- 
ment under which they live are naturally determined to ha^"- 5 viie-hiziiTto say about 
the conditions under which they are called upon to work. Tlr rzi- : : -rr :an decline, 
as he often does, to recognize a union, and in that way he c-an pr ;-; ':i^ -rikes, whichj 
in their turn, result in \-iolence. When he does this' simply be:: .-- _r :? unwilling 
to recognize a labor union he perpetuates, if he does not create, a s:;.:f :i — ar in indus- 
try; and he must share the responsibility for this result when he acts so iUogicaUy. 
The so-called open shop in most instances is not a shop in which union men and non- 
union men work side by side. Ordinarily it is a shop from which imion men are 
excluded if they are known to belong to a union, or. if they are admitted, they are ad- 
mitted only upon condition that they forego many of the' advantages for which they 
join the union, conspicuous among lie advantages to be derived being the right of 
collective bargaining through representatives of their own choice. 

]slr. Low is a practical business man as well as a student, and this 

emphatic statement is especially important. He has been mayor of 
New York, mayor of Brooklyn, president of Columbia University, a 
partner in the importing house of A. A. Low & Sons, and has acted as 
arbitrator in many important industrial disputes. 

Compare these views on collective bargaining with 'Sli. Rocke- 
fellers (p. 2S74): 

Mr. Rockefeller. There is just one thing, Mr. Chairman, so faur as I understand it, 

which can be done as things are at present to settle this strike, and that is to unionize 
the camps; and our interest in labor is so profound and \re believe so sincCTely that 
that interest demands that the camps shall be open camps that we expect to staiMi by 
the officers at any cost. It is not an accident that this is our position 

The Chairmax. And you will do that if it costs all your property and kills all your 
employees? 

Mr. RocKEFZLLEE. It is a great principle. 

The Chairmax. And you would do that rather than reccjgnize the right of men to 
collective bargaining? Is that what I understand? 

!Mr. RocKEFELLEE. Xo. SIT. Rather than aUow outside people to come in and in- 
terfere with employees who are thoroughly satisfied with their labor conditions — it 
was upon a simitar principle that the War c»f the Revoluti<->n was carried on. It is a 
great national issue of the most A-ital kind. 

There is nothing so dreadful to this Xew York owner of Colorado 
mines and this importer of Pittsburgh strike breakers as some out- 
side influence which wiH lead to collective •:;::"' r.^- 

In passing, it may be appropriate to ; :- ::::.i un important 
opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in a case where 
employers sought to excuse themselves for a violation of law by 
suggesting that they were acting in the interest of their emplovees. 
In Holdenx. Hardy {im U. S., 366, p. 397j, Mr. Justice Brown says: 

It may not be improper to suggest in this connection that althougji the proeecutMn 
in this case was against the employer of labor, who apparently under the statute is 
the only one liable, his defense is not so much that his right to contract has been 
infringed upon, but that the act works a peculiar hardship to his employees, whose 
right to labor as long as they please is allied to be thereby violated. The argument 
uouM certainly come with better grace and greater cogency from the latter dass. But the 
fact that both parties are of full age and comi)etent to contract does not nece^arily 
deprive the State of the power to interfere where the parties do not stand upon an 
equaht\-. or where the public health demands that one party to the contzact d^all be 
protected against himself. 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 17 

UNION INCORPORATION. 

It has been supposed that one objection of the operators to deahng 
with the union is because the union is not incorporated; but Mr. 
Osgood says (p. 440) : 

I feel that the objects of the United Mine Workers, without being of sufficient bene- 
fit to their members, are so inimical to the interests of the operators that I would not 
contract icith them if they were incorporated. 

Mr. Rockefeller's reasons for not deahng with the union have just 
been quoted. 

Mr. Osgood's reasons for refusing to meet the United Mine Workers 
are not so beautifully unselfish as are Mr. Rockefeller's, but neither 
puts his objection on the ground of lack of incorporation. 

The matter of incorporation of unions was referred to occasionally 
during the hearings, and in the light of the foregoing typical attitude 
it would seem that too much importance is attached to this subject. 
One of the chief reasons given for the desirability of the incorpora- 
tion of unions is that they may be sued more reaclil}^, but without 
their incorporation there may be a statute providing that an unin- 
corporated voluntary organization m^ay be sued by its common 
name, or that an action against it may be brought directly against 
one or more designated officers. Such statutes exist now in at least 
six of our States — Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, 
Michigan, and Vermont. There is already in Colorado a provision 
of the code relating to suits against two or more persons transacting 
business under a common name, and, if necessary, a shght amend- 
ment to this statute would be sufficient to render unions suable, 
and the judgment in such an action could be made to bind the joint 
property of the associates. (Colo. Code Civ. Pro., sec. 14.) More- 
over, incorporation, while doing away with individual liability, does 
not, of course, necessarily make the resulting legal entity wealthy, 
whether the incorporators are rich or poor. As a means of bringing 
about industrial peace, incorporation of unions would be of little 
use, for there are still many employers like Mr. Osgood who would 
no more deal with an incorporated labor union than with one unin- 
corporated, for they object to the union in an}^ form. 

Some persons may maintain that the men above quoted are insin- 
cere in stating their reasons for opposing the union. It is, however, 
not necessary to charge them with insincerity. Ignoring as they do 
society's interest in coal mining, they are simply viewing the matter 
through their own interests. Mr. Welborn is very sure it is his 
business (p. 537), and Mr. Osgood thinks in the same way without 
saying so in just those words (pp. 475, 481). If they would regard 
the matter as the fact really is — as is certainly shown by the history 
of Colorado — that society has a great interest in their business, 
they would, in the first place, not have allowed, during these many 
years, discrimination contrary to law against union men, and, in 
the second place, they would at least have been willing to confer with 
the representatives of an organization with which a majority of 
their former employees are in sympathy. 

Mr. Welborn states as a reason for not making a contract with the 
United Mine Workers that their contracts are broken in every dis- 
trict, but he gives no higher authority for such a statement, and 

44431—14 2 



18 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLOKADO. 

offers no better evidence than newspaper report (p. 538). By 
union men it has been claimed that it is one of the proudest boasts 
of the United Mine Workers that they do not violate a contract 
when it is once entered into (p. 288). It has been shown that prac- 
tically all the operators in the great bituminous coal-producing 
States have contractual relations with the United Mine Workers, 
and many of them in other States have such relations (pp. 245, 246)! 
Letters from the Coal Operating Association of Iowa, and from 
leading operators there employing large numbers of men, show that 
conditions under union contracts have been entirely satisfactory 
(pp. 2515, 2516), and if anywhere these conditions have been as bad 
as our operators claim, it would have been perfectly easy for them 
to have brought competent evidence of that fact. 

THE COAL MONOPOLY. 

The great practical difficulty in Colorado is that the three largest com- 
panies produce 68 per cent of the coal oftJie State (p. 395), and represent 
hy their influence 95 per cent of the coal production (pp. 463, 2686). 

Hence they control the situation, and the smaller producers can 
not make a contract with the United Mine Workers, though they 
might be willing to do so, unless these controlling companies also 
make one. They are afraid, as the Routt County operators said, 
that they will be ''put out of business" (pp. 2165, 2166). The great 
operating companies are combined for a common purpose, which is 
absolutely to dictate to all with whom they are concerned, directly or 
indirectly, how the great coal-mining business of a State shall be 
operated, and they intend to carry out this purpose with a ruthless 
disregard of consequences, immediate or remote. 

To some this seems to be a fight for liberty, but under actual condi- 
tions it is a fight for tyranny. The true situation is woefully mis- 
understood by those who do not know the actual conditions as they 
have existed in the coal fields for years. To them the plausible claim 
of the operators that they are fighting for liberty has a satisfying and 
agreeable sound. The matter is well stated by a recent writer: 

In America the great mass of farmers, small tradesmen, and professional men, fail 
to sympathize with the trade-union through lack of an understanding of its funda- 
mental aims and of the environment of the men who stand for those aims. The average 
outside individual objects to the trade-union, not because it insists on higher wages 
(which all are willing to concede — provided some one else pays them), but because 
it demands ""'the recognition of the union. " 

Actually, however, in our more and more centralized industry this demand for 
recognition is the nearest possible approach to a real industrial democracy or even to 
a real industrial liberty for the workers. The kindly and often sympathetic opponents 
of the closed shop and of the recognition of the union appeal to the freedom of every 
individual, unionist, or nonunionist, to make a fair contract with his employer. It 
is perhaps a pleasanter ideal than collective bargaining with striking, picketing, and 
a compulsory membership in a union, but it is an ideal, which, for the present, is 
unattainable in many trades. (Weyl, The New Democracy, p. 293, note.) 

THE MODEEN ATTITUDE TOWARD FREEDOM OF CONTRACT. 

A recent author. Prof. Groat, writing on the ^^ Attitude of American 
courts in labor cases" (1911), completely answers the Rockefeller 
sophistries and admirably summarizes the correct modern view of regu- 
lation of freedom of contract (pp. 380-398) as follows: 

Conditions show that masses of men "of full age and competent understanding" 
have not the "utmost liberty of contracting." They have in fact nothing whatever to 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 19 

say about what agreement they shall work under. Employed in wholesale numbers 
in a manner wholly impersonal, their choice is to take work on the terms offered or let 
it alone. Clearly every whit of freedom of contract lies with the employer. There are 
opinions that can not be carefully read without giving the reader the impression that 
the employer's freedom to make a contract suitable to himself was a consideration in 
the judge's mind more weighty than the workingman's freedom. Necessarily the 
employer's liberty must be limited as that of his employee is expanded. When a 
situation wherein the bargaining advantage lies so obviously on one side is sought to be 
remedied, the remedy can not be effected without restricting the side that formerly 
had the advantage. 

* -x- -x- * -x- * -x- 

Could any expression show more clearly the failure to appreciate conditions, failure 
to realize what scrip payment and truck stores mean, and the determination to enforce 
in modern conditions old meanings adaptable to surroundings that no longer exist? 
The employees are in fact deprived of the substance of liberty in order that they may 
have its semblance. The employers in fact are supported in a position of absolute 
dictators under cover of terms that imply equality. How striking is the contrast. 

■X- * * -x- * * * 

The situation so far as the contract relation is concerned reaches a conclusion so 
absurd as to be hardly believable. Clearly the employee class does not want long 
hours, irregular pay, or conditions of labor dangerous to health. To assume that work- 
men want such conditions is absurd. If, then, they do not want them it is scarcely 
less absurd to assume that they value the liberty which enables them to insist upon 
such terms. To the workman as a class such a freedom, judged by results, can be no 
freedom at all. Nor indeed are any cases to be found where the workmen are appealing 
to the courts for the protection of this right. 

■X- -x- * -x- * * * 

To protect every man in the exercise of his own liberty to choose conditions in 
which he shall work results to-day in permitting to one party, the employer, the 
arbitrary dictation of conditions in which the other, the employee, must work or 
starve. That such a situation is frequently recognized by courts is amon» the hopeful 
signs. That it has been so often overlooked is a chief cause for the dissatisfaction 
with our courts evinced by large numbers of our population. 

****** -x- * 

Social legislation is clearly the order of the day because the problems to be dealt 
with by legislation are social problems. Justice is ever the thing sought. It was so in 
earlier centiu-ies; it is so in the twentieth century. Social justice is now sought as 
individual justice was sought a century and more ago. Individual justice was sought 
before it had been clearly defined. The quest for it aided in the definition of it. So 
we have not a generally accepted definition of social justice. Yet, the pursuit of it 
is leading to a better understanding of its natm-e. 

* -x- -x- * * * -x- 

Instead of sa\dng, as did the New York court of appeals {People v. Coler), that "a 
law that restricts freedom of contract on the part of both master and servant can not, 
in the end, operate to the benefit of either," it may be held that as a matter of fact, 
as industry is at present organized, a law restricting freedom of contract on the part of 
both employer and employee may and often will in the end operate to the benefit 
of both. 

■X- -x- * * -x- * * 

Freedom of contract, to repeat, is not an end in itself. It is clearly a means to 
accomplishing an end. WTien this end is defeated by the very means that are intended 
to accomplish it, then it seems that the means may fairly be held to be unconstitutional . 
That end may be expressed as "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness," "life, liberty, 
and property," or "social justice." They must be the same. If legal limitation of 
freedom of contract furthers the ends of social justice by equalizing the conditions of 
bargaining it can not be in violation of the real purpose of the Constitution. 

***** -x- -x- 

Regulative laws * * * are not only not positively unconstitutional; they are 
positively constitutional. They both modernize and vitalize these honored phrases 
with a new and a larger life. A new meaning is given to the Constitution. The way 
is opened for it to do for twentieth century civilization what it has done for nineteenth 
century civilization . 



20 COXDITIOXS IX THE COAL MIXES OF COLORADO. 

THE 1910 STEIKE. 

Before tiu'ning to the more specific causes of the present contro- 
versy it seems necessary to refer briefly to the strike of 1910 in the 
coal fields of northern Colorado. As that strike has been continuous 
from its beginning in 1910 until the present time, and as it has affected 
some, at least, of the operators now involved in the southern field, it 
is closely bound up with the present strike ; and some brief separate 
consideration of its principal features, particularly as brought out in 
the investigations made by the Colorado Legislature, is necessary to a 
complete understanding of the causes and conchtions surrounding 
the present, or 1913, strike in the southern field. 

As testified to by ^h\ Doyle (pp. 21S0-218S), various causes con- 
tributed to the northern Colorado strike, begun in 1910. The record 
showing is, however, one of relative simplicity compared ^vLth con- 
ditions in the southern field. The report of Colorado's legislative 
committee of 1913 concisely states the immediate demand and the 
preceding history in Weld and Boulder Counties. It appears (Colo- 
rado House Journal, 1913, p. 1630 et seq.), ^\T.thout contradiction, that 
for some years prior to the spring of 1910 the northern coal operators 
had worked their properties under contract "^ith the United ^line 
Workers of America: that these contracts expired March 31, 1910; 
and that, prior to that date, new two-year contracts were considered 
between the parties, and that the negotiations were continued until 
April 4, 1910: that on that date, after consideration of the miners' 
demand for 5. do per cent increase of wages for men working by the 
day and 3 cents per ton for men working by the ton, negotiations 
were broken off between the parties, and the men were ordered out 
on a strike, which has continued to the present time. The com- 
mittee of the House delegated to investigate the strike divided as to 
the responsibiHty for the final breach in negotiations. J. H. Fergu- 
son, a member of the committee charging the responsibiHty directly 
''on the representatives of the operators" (ib., p. 1639). the remain- 
der of the committee reporting its inabihty to agree. The com- 
mittee unanimously found, with reference to the justice of the 
demands for an increase of wages, that the average earnings prior 
to 1910 had varied from about S350 to about S500 per year, and 
that, in the fight of this showing, the proposed increases were not 
unreasonable. The committee further reported (ib., p. 1637) that 
the attitude of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Co. in giving paramount 
consideration to its pohcy of maintaining an o]3en shop, was unjusti- 
fiable under the circumstances, and the comnfittee closed, as follow 
(ib., p. 1637): 

TTe renew our recommendations . however, to the parties to the controversy: That 
the members of the union should remove all occasion for just criticism of breach of 
contracts: that the operators should recognize the patent tendencies of the times 
toward organization of employees, as well employers, and should be willing to meet 
the conditions of the times by recognizing and contracting with labor organizations 
upon receiving satisfactory assurances of their responsibility. 

THE 1913 STRIKE— SPECIFIC CAUSES OF THE STRIKE. 

Turning now to a more specific consideration of the causes of Colo- 
rado's costly industrial controversy, perhaps as brief a summary as 
can be made, la^fing particular emphasis on the failure of the State 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 21 

of Colorado to enforce its laws, is found in the statements of Mr. 
Lawson and Mr. McLennan to tlie committee (pp. 1308-1309), as 
follows : 

Mr. Lawson. * * * The fact of the matter is, Colorado to-day has laws second 
to none in the United States for the workmen, but because they have been denied 
this freedom, because at the elections these companies have dominated over their 
employees, * * * the right to organize was enacted in 1897 and the new law passed 
in 1911, and the miners of this State have never had the right to organize, particularly 
in these two counties; the truck order, or scrip system, was enacted in 1899, and we 
have the scrip system to-day. The checkweighman was enacted in 1897, and it is 
a notorious fact that if a man went on the tipples of those large companies, until just 
recently, he was kicked off by a gunman or a thug, and was not given an opportunity 
to get off in the right way. The eight-hour law was enacted in 1895. They tell you 
how they put it into effect — about a year ago — when the organization came into this 
field. This semimonthly pay-day law was enacted in 1901. I heard some of the oper- 
ators around here not long ago state they were surprised, or words to that effect, that 
there was such a law in effect until 1913. That law has been on the statutes since 1901, 
and I would like to have the operators tell this committee how long they have lived 
up to these laws. * * * It makes no difference what laws there are on the statutes 
of this State. The operators have fought every law as consistently and as hard as 
they knew how; but, after all, when the laws are placed on the statutes they have 
absolutely not lived up to them in Las Animas and Huerfano Counties, and these 
gentlemen, whom I have not talked to, you may question them yourselves, will explain 
to you why, law or no law, it makes no difference to the three big companies that are 
operating in this field. * * * 

Mr. McLennan. * * * I want to corroborate the statements that have been 
made by Mr. Lawson. * * * The most important feature of the struggle that is 
now going on is the fact that the operators have persistently refused to allow their 
employees to belong to the union — a right that is established by law; but on account 
of their controlling the machinery of government of these two counties they have been 
able to prcA'ent them enjoying that right, and for the last 10 years, to my knowledge 
I can say that there has been absolutely no law in these two counties except the will 
of the coal operators, and that was administered usually at the muzzle of a six- 
shooter. * * * 

The justice of these dramatic accusations is substantiated by the 
testimony. Mr. Welborn, president of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., 
testified definitely as to certain of the laws mentioned. He stated 
(p. 500) that his company established the semimonthly pay day on 
February 1, 1913, and an eight-hour day March 1, 1913, and mis- 
takenly added: ''There was no law at that time calling for an eight- 
hour day." He added (p. 501) that, following an agitation, his 
company posted a circular at its properties April 11, 1912, notifying 
the company's employees of their right to check weighmen, and that 
scrip was abolished January 1, 1913, for much the same reason that 
the notice was posted. 

The testimony -of Supt. Cameron, of the Hastings mine, a Victor- 
American Fuel Co. property, shows an almost identical situation as 
to the various laws and practices mentioned for that company (pp. 
1524-1525). 

In the light of these admissions, let us briefly review the different 
laws mentioned, and separately consider the record testimony, which 
clearly shows an habitual attitude of law violation on the part of the 
large coal companies in the southern fields. 

THE COLORADO LAW AS TO THE SEMIMONTHLY PAY DAY. 

Bearing in mind Mr. Welborn's statement that the semimonthly 
pay day w^as established by the company February 1, 1913 (p. 500), 
it w^ill be of interest to know that by Colorado's session laws of 1901 



22 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

(Laws of 1901, p. 128; 3 M. A. S. sec. 7727 et seq.), it was provided 
that all corporations except railroad, ditch, canal, and reservoir 
companies niTist pay their employees in lawful money, or by checks on 
banks convertible into cash on demand at full face value, on the 5th and 
20th days of each month, for all wages earned up to five days pre- 
vious. Failure so to pay causes a penalty of 5 per cent to attach, 
and any contract attempting to evade the provisions of the act is 
made void. The wages of discharged employees are made imme- 
diatel}^ due and payable upon their discharge, and failure to pay 
subjects the offender to a penalty of 5 per cent. It is provided that 
domestic corporations organized subsequent to the passage of the 
law shall be deemed to have been incorporated with reference to it, 
and a wiUful violation of its provisions is made a ground for forfeiture 
of their charters. This act, therefore, was almost 12 years old 
before it received recognition from the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. 

ILLEGAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST UNION MEN THE LAW. 

By Colorado's Session Laws of 1897, page 156 (Rev. Stat., 1908, 
sec. ^3925; 2 M. A. S. sec. 4474-4475), in fo'rce June 17, 1897, it was 
made unlawful for any individual or corporation to prevent employees 
from forming, jomino:, or belonging to any lawful labor organization, 
union, society, or political party, or to coerce employees by discharg- 
ing or threatenino- to discharge them because of their connection with 
such bodies. Violation constitutes a misdemeanor, the penalty 
being a fine of $100 to $500, or imprisonment from six months to one 
year, or both. 

By Colorado's Session Law^s of 1911, page 8 (2 M. A. S., sees. 4476- 
4477), in force March 27, 1911, it was made unlawful for any employer 
of labor to demand as a condition of employment, or of the continu- 
ance of employment, any agreement, written or otherwise, that the 
employee shall sever connection with or refrain from joining any law- 
ful organization; or under any pretense whatever to prohibit, limit, 
or restrain the employee from exercising his social, fiaancial, fraternal, 
or business rights in connection with a ay lawful organization. Vio- 
lation is a misdemeanor punishable by fine of $50 to $500 or impris- 
onment from 90 days to 6 months. 

THE TESTIMONY. 

Notwithstanding this legal situation there are intimations, coupled 
with du-ect testimony, scattered throughout the long record of this 
investigation showing the most persistent hostility on the part of the 
coal companies of Colorado to all efforts to organize. 

Both these statutes have been repeatedly violated by the agents of 
the coal-operatiog companies. A general denial of the violation of 
the law has been catered by the operators; but specific iostances of 
such violation have been testified to, as to which no denial has been 
made. Witness Picitelli, for example, testified as follows: 

Q. Mr. Dain told you you were laid off A. Because I talked about the union; 

because I come to Trinidad every Sunday and talk about the union, and that is why 
I have to discharge you, and 1 don't want to do it because I have to, because the 
men I work for tell me to discharge you (p. 1248). 

In 1906 at Walsenburg, John R. Lawson, international representa- 
tive and organizer for the United Mine Workers, as shown by the 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLOKADO. 23 

tostimony of witness McQuarrie (pp. 2379-2380), was arrested under 
the direct orders of Sheriff Farr on a framed-up and wholly unwar- 
ranted accusation. Senator Tanquary stated that about three years 
ago (pp. 2269-2270), while conducting an employment agency, he was 
directed by a representative of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. not to 
send the sort of men for coal mines he had been selecting, because they 
were too intelligent and looked as if they might be organizers. Dr. 
McDonald, Methodist Episcopal minister, stated that during the year 
1912, while a strike was being talked of, the town marshal at Hastings 
frequently stopped the hacks for the discovery of objectionable per- 
sons, by that meaning supposed union men, and that on one occasion, 
between 1910 and 1912, the witness observed tw^o deputy sheriffs or 
guards ' 'herding out" three miners who were suspected of being union 
men (pp. 2019-2020). He said: 

I made inquiry as to what the trouble was, because I thought that there must be a 
terrible charge to have them herded out of town in this way; that they must have 
'been guilty of murder or some other terrible crime, and I found that the trouble was 
that they were suspected of being union men (p. 2019). 

These are but samples of the discrimination along these lines, of 
which the record continuously speaks. It ties up with many evidences 
of blacklisting for the same cause. Witness ZanateU testified that 
Supt. O'Neill ordered him out of Berwind, stating that he did not 
like to discharge a man because he belonged to the union, in the 
course of a conversation in which the superintendent said it was 
necessary to protect himself, and in which he intimated strongly that 
information had been received that ZanatelFs brother was a union 
organizer (p. 1073); and the witness added that, on one occasion, 
while acting himself as foreman at the Majestic mine, he was obliged, 
under orders from Supt. Zook, to discharge two men, and so advised 
them, because they belonged to the union. Witness Fyler (p. 1092) 
gave an instance of a Slav who, in or about 1912, was marched out of 
Delagua by a mine employee, the latter holding a six-shooter in his 
hand, for talking of the union, and the witness added that if a party 
said anything in regard to the union at Tabasco at that time he cer- 
tainly would have to leave the canyon, whether he had a family or no 
family (p. 1092). 

Witness Wennberg, speaking particularly of blacklisting, stated 
that in 1912, while the witness was mine foreman at Bowen, the 
superintendent came to him, and rebuked him for making too many 
remarks about the union, warning him that he would be discharged 
unless he stopped talking; that in 1908, at Bowmen, the superintendent 
told him that two men named Westman and Carlson could not work 
any longer in the mine because they were union men, his conclusion 
being based on the fact that they were receiving through the post 
office a paper incUned toward unionism, and in 1903 at Hastings the 
witness and one Fob, the mine foreman of No. 2, each received a list 
of names of persons required to be discharged because they were 
union men, notwithstanding the fact that in the witness's opinion 
they were the best men he had in the mine (pp. 307-309). Witness 
Gamier (pp. 2178-2179) gave testimony leaving little doubt that he 
was blacklisted throughout southern Colorado, other miners being- 
put to work while the mtness was denied employment. 

Witness Henness (pp. 1930-1933) cited an instance where Sheriff 
Jeff Farr, of Walsen})urg, wanted tv/o men discharged solely because 



24 CON^DITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

they were union men. Witness Lawson stated that the organiza- 
tion reports show the discharge of about 6,000 men in 1903 because 
the men belonged to the organization (p. 212). He also gave an 
instance of an organizer named Oberinsky, at Rugby, being killed 
because of his organizmg activities on behalf of the Western Feder- 
ation of Miners (p. 285). Witness Wilson (pp. 672-674) read into 
the record blackhsting letters, brought to the attention of the mtness 
in 1908 by the town marshal at Bowen, discriminating directly 
against specified organizers for the United Mine Workers of America. 
He further called attention to the use of ''spotters'' (p. 669) to detect 
union men among the employees of the Victor-American Fuel Co., 
and to the fact that union men concealed their organization activities, 
knomng that they could not hold their jobs if they told anybody of 
them. He gave instances of arbitrary orders to men to ''hit" the 
trail or road (pp. 671-674), and testified to the frequent use of 
blacklists (p. 675). Witness Sikoria testified to being discharged at 
Oak View ''about the union" and because the mtness wanted to* 
try to organize (p. 692). Witness Fyler stated that it was the evi- 
dent pohcy about Tabasco to discharge union men and cited an 
instance of three or four men being discharged at Ber^\dnd on that 
account (p. 1095). Witness Militello, who had lost a leg in a coal 
mine accident, stated that Supt. Jennings blacklisted him as a 
peddler and that the marshal at Cokedale assaulted, dragged, beat, 
and broke a buggy whip over him because he was a union man (pp. 
2075-2076). Witness Gilbert, at the present time a member of the 
Colorado Legislature from Fremont County, testified to bein^ black- 
listed in certain mines prior to 1906, and that because of his affili- 
ation \with labor organizations and his advocac}^ of the rights of men 
he has been kept out of work by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. "for 
quite a few years" (p. 2362). 
The record continues (p. 2369) : 
Bj'jNIr. Sutherland: 

Q. When you went to Air. Beech for a place there, li\'ing in the same town, what 
reason did he give you for not employing you? — A. He says it was out of his power to 
get me work. 

Q. What did he mean bv that? — A. He meant that I was simply blacklisted from 
the 1903 and 1904 strike. 

Q. Did he complain about the quahty of your work at any preceding time? — A, 
No, sir; I am a practical miner. 

Q. Do you mine as much coal as the average miner in a given place? — ^A. Yes, sir. 

Q. He didn't tell you you couldn't mine enough coal, did he? — A. No, sir; he 
can't tell me that, because it is not the truth. 

Q,. Didn't complain about your not being industrious? — A. No, sir. 

Q. He knew you had property there in town, wliich was more convenient for you 
to live in than elsewhere? — A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Was he taking on men — did he need men? — A. Yes, sir; he was taking on all 
he could get. 

Q. You went to liim many times; how many times? — A. I went to him several 
times. 

Q. And he wouldn't give you a job? — A. No, sir; I wasn't the only one. There 
were many others that happened — ^just happened — to be local officers or unlucky to be 
that way, you might term it, of the wind-up of that strike of 1904. 

On the other hand, a few only of the mine superintendents were 
called. Cameron, one of them, was called and recalled, and made 
no denial of the statements sworn to in detail by witnesses. (See, 
for example, p. 308.) Snodgrass was also called and recalled, and 
did not den}^ discrimination against the union specifically testified to 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 25 

(see pp. 672, 673), though he does make a general statement that he 
did not discharge men for belonging to the union. It is, indeed, sig- 
nificant, in view of the amount of testimony given on this matter of 
discrimination against union men, that out of the great number of 
mine superintendents only four were called by the operators as wit- 
nesses (Cameron, Jolly, O'Neil, and Snodgrass). 

In the face of such testimony, and much more which might be 
summarized, the conclusion would appear to be overwhelming as to 
the worthlessness of Colorado statutory law as to union organization 
and as to blacklisting. 

The Colorado law on the subject of blacklisting is pertinent in 
this connection, and it should be sufficient to cite it without further 
analysis of the testimony, from which w^e have already shown flagrant 
and long-continued violation. 

THE COLORADO LAW ON BLACKLISTING. 

The first Colorado statute on this subject became eft'ective July 2, 
1887 (Laws of 1887, p. 58; 1 M. A. S., sec. 461 ; Rev. Stat., 1908, sec. 
396). This act is still in force. It provides that no corporation nor 
individaal shall blacklist or publish any discharged employee with the 
intent and for the purpose of preventing his getting employment 
from any other individual or corporation. It provides that violation 
shall be a misdemeanor punishable by fine or imprisonment. 

In 1897 (Laws of 1897, p. 118) an act was passed prohibiting black- 
Hsting and providing that on demand by any dismissed employee 
the employer shall furnish a written statement of the specific reasons 
for his dismissal. This act was repealed in 1901 (Laws of 1901, p. 77) . 

In 1905 (Laws of 1905, p. 160; 1 M. A. S., sec. 467: Rev. Stat., 
1908, sec. 401) an act was passed covering much the same ground as 
the act of 1887, adding, however, a proviso that the act shall not 
prevent a former employer from imparting a fair and unbiased opinion 
of a workman's qualifications when solicited by a later prospective 
ernployer. 

in this connection it may not be amiss to cite the language of a 
standard text writer on this subject. In 5 Labatt, Master and Ser- 
vant, second edition (p. 6292 et seq.). the author considers the deci- 
sions on the subject of blacklisting under the various heads of libel, 
conspiracv, actions on the case, and suits for injunctions. He then 
says (p. 6300): 

The present writer has no hesitation in expressing the opinion that the broader 
considerations of public policy point very decidedly to the conclusion that black- 
listing should be greatly restricted, if not entirely prohibited, by legislation, in so 
far as the practice takes the form of an exchange of circulars or notices between dif- 
ferent employers. There is, no doubt, considerable difficulty in framing provisions 
which will afford adequate protection to employees and at the same time not trench 
unduly upon the privilege of communicating information regarding their character 
to persons who are interested in ascertaining the truth; but it is apprehended that 
any harm which may result from a moderate limitation of the rights of employers in 
this respect will be slight in comparison with the evil consequences which are certain 
to follow if a practice so essentially repugnant to the free institutions of Anglo-Saxon 
civilization as that of systematic blacklisting is allowed to remain unregulated. The 
inevitable effect of such practice must be the subjection of a constantly increasing 
number of employees to disabilities and restrictions scarcely less oppressive than tiiose 
to which servants were formerly subjected in England by statutory provisions, 'ong 
since obsolete, and to which they are still in some measure subjected by the laws of 
a portion of the countries of continental Europe. A passport system of this kind has 



26 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

always been found to be productive of serious evils, even when it is worked by public 
officials, and it must be much more dangerous to leave in the hands of private parties 
so formidable an instrument of potential tyranny, capable of being used, and, as human 
nature is constituted, certain to be used, in many instances, as the means of gratifying 
personal animosity or class hatred. 

THE COLORADO EIGHT-HOUR LAW SITUATION THE TESTIMONY. 

The record also sufficiently suggests how fundamental a cause of 
the strike the disregard of eight-hour legislation has always been. 
Dr. McDonald, the Methodist Episcopal minister, testified (pp. 2021-2) 
that the Victor-American Superintendent Cameron on one occasion 
circulated a petition against the eight-hour day. Cameron himself 
stated he did not know how long the eight-hour day had been in vogue 
at Hastings, but at the time of the investigation they had had it 
' ^several months." The ' ' 14-year i' fight for an 8-hour law is compre- 
hensively described by Witness Gilbert (p. 2370) and Witness Brake 
as among the special causes leading up to the strike (pp. 74-5). 

In connection with this testimony some significance attaches to a 
review of Colorado's eight-hour laws. 

THE LAWS. 

For State, county, school district, and town work, an eight-hour 
day was established by the laws of 1893, page 305, amended by laws 
of 1894, page 85 (Rev. Stat. 1908, sec. 3921; 2 m. a. s., sec. 4468). 

The constitutionality of this law was upheld in Keefe v. Peofle 
(37 Colo., 317, 322). 

An act regulating the hours of labor in underground mines, etc., 
was approved March 16, 1899 (Laws of 1899, p. 232). This law was 
held unconstitutional in In re Morgan (26 Colo., 415). 

As a result of the holding of the supreme court in In re Morgan, 
supra, the legislature of 1901 submitted a constitutional amendment 
(Laws of 1901, p. 108), which was adopted November 4, 1902, and is 
now section 25x1 of Article V of the constitution. This amendment 
is in effect that the general assembly shall provide by law for a period 
of employment not to exceed eight hours per day, except in cases of 
emergency, for persons employed in underground mines, smelters, 
etc., or other labor that the general assembly may consider injurious 
or dangerous to health or life. 

In Burcher v. People (41 Colo., 495), this amendment was consid- 
ered in connection with the so-called women and children act (Laws 
of 1903, p. 309), regulatirg the hours of work for women in mills, 
factories, shops, etc., and it was there held that, under the amend- 
ment, the legislature must first find and declare that the occupation 
is injurious to health, before limiting the hours of labor therein, and 
that tlie act in question is invalid because that had not been done, and 
also because it failed to express in its title the real purpose of the act. 

On March 21, 1905 (Laws of 1905, p. 284; Rev. Stat., 1908, sec. 
3912), an act was approved declaring all labor of miners in under- 
ground mines and attending blast furnaces, etc., wJiicJi labor is in 
contact with noxious fumes, gases, or vapors, to be dangerous, and 
limiting the period of employment to eight hours per day, except in 
an emergency. Violation was made a misdemeanor, punishable with 
fine of from $50 to $300. 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 27 

On August 31, 1911, there went into effect an act repealing the fore- 
going act of 1905, and at the same time passing another act broadening 
its scope (Laws of 1911, p. 454; 2 M. A. S., sec. 4471-4473). This 
act declared all worl: in underground mines, underground workings, 
smelters, etc., to behijurious to health, and prohibited work of more 
than eight hours per day, pro\nding also that violation shall be a mis- 
demeanor punishable with fine of from $250 to $500, or imprisonment 
fi-om 90 days to 6 months. 

This bill was referred under the initiative and referendum law, 
and was voted upon at the general election of November, 1912, and 
approved, becoming effective January 22, 1913. (Laws of 1913, p. 
688.) 

Meanwhile, another act like the act of 1905 was initiated, was also 
voted upon at the general election in November, 1912, and was also 
carried. This act declares employment in underground mines, 
smelters, etc., to be injurious to health wherever such employment is 
continuously in contact with noxious fumes , gases, and vapors, and pro- 
hibits such employment for longer than 8 hours in 24. (Laws of 1913, 
p. 690.) 

The effect of the simultaneous passage of these two conflicting laws, 
being a matter of some debate, was submitted to the supreme court 
by the senate during the session of 1913 {In re Senate Resolution, 54 
Colo., 262). The legislature had under consideration a bill repealing 
the law of 1905, and also the law initiated and passed at the November, 
1912, election. The senate propounded to the supreme court several 
questions involving the validity of the referred act of 1911, and the 
initiated act of 1912, and as to the legal effect of the passage of both 
these acts at the election of 1912. These questions the supreme court 
declined to answer, on the ground that they were completed legisla- 
tion and that private rights might have attached which should not be 
determined in an ex parte proceeding. The court did advise the sen- 
ate, however, that the legislature has power to repeal an initiated act 
and that it also has power to prevent referendum of an act by deter- 
mining and declaring that the act was necessary for the immediate 
preservation of the public peace, health, and safety. 

Pursuant to this advice, the legislature passed an act which became 
effective April 3, 1913 (Laws of 1913, p. 305), declaring employmxcnt 
in underground mines, underground workings, smelters, etc., to be 
injurious to health, limiting the period of employment therein to 8 
hours within any 24, except in cases of emergency, and pro- 
viding that violation shall be a misdemeanor punishable by fine of 
from $250 to $500, or by imiprisonment from 90 days to 6 months. 
The act also repealed the 1905 law, further repealed the initiated law 
of 1912, and declared that the act was necessary for the immediate 
preservation of the public health and safety. 

THE TRUCK SYSTEM, OR SCRIP AND TRADING AT COMPANY STORES — 

THE LAW. 

In 1897 the Colorado Legislature had under consideration a bill 
for an act to abolish the use of scrip in payment for labor, making it 
unlav/ful for any person or corporation to issue to any employee in 
payment of wages any scrip, token, or draft payable or redeemable 
otherwise than in money. This bill, after passage by the house and 



28 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLOKADO. 

while pending in the senate,, was submitted to the supreme court 
upon questions as to its constitutionaHty. The court refused to 
pass finally upon the questions, for the reason that it appeared that 
the bill was not in final form. It expressed the opinion that the leg- 
islature may, in the exercise of the police power, enact laws of this 
character when necessary to prevent oppression and fraud, and for 
the protection of classes of individuals against unconscionable deal- 
ings. {In re scrip UU,^ 23 Colo., 504.) 

The act in question in the above case was apparently never passed, 
but on March 31, 1899, the present law on the subject was approved 
and became effective. (Lavrs of 1899, p. 425; 3 M. A. S., sec. 7735; 
Rev. Stat., 1908, sec. 6989.) 

This act makes it unla^\^ul for any person or corporation to employ 
the truck system, which is defined as being (1) any agreement or 
understanding used by the employer, directly or indirectly, to require 
his employee to waive payment of his wages in money, and to take 
the same in goods of the employer or any other person; (2) any con- 
dition in any contract of employment, direct or indirect, or any 
understanding whatsoever, express or implied, that the wages of 
the employee shall be spent in any particular place or manner; (3) 
any requirement or understanding whatsoever by the employer with 
the employee that does not permit the employee to purchase the 
necessaries of life where and of whom he likes, without interference, 
coercion, let, or hindrance; (4) any arrangement for charging a dis- 
count or interest on advances of wages where pay days are at un- 
reasonable intervals; (5) any arrangement by which any person may 
issue a truck order or scrip by means of which the maker may charge 
the amount to the employer to be deducted from the vrages of the 
employee. 

The act provides that any scrip issued in furtherance of such 
truck system shall be void in the hands of any person or corporation 
^vith Ivnowledge that it was issued pursuant to such system; that 
violation of the act shall constitute a misdemeanor and cause for- 
feiture of the charter of a domestic corporation and of the right to 
do business of a foreign corporation, and for prosecution by the 
district attorney, as in other criminal cases. 

In the case of Knoxville Iron Co. v. Harhison (183 U. S., 13; 1901), 
hereafter cited, it ^\dll be remembered that the United States Supreme 
Court upheld the constitutionality of a statute of Tennessee requiring 
scrip or store orders to he redeemed in cash. 

THE TESTIMONY. 

The use of scrip by the Victor-American Fuel Co. at Delagua was 
testified to by witness Holt (p. 1570), and the same practice at Forbes, 
before the strike, by the Rocky Mountain Fuel Co., was shown by 
witness ZaneteU (p. 1080). The continuing practice of using scrip 
at the Hastings mine was likewise testified about by witness McLeod 
(p. 1470). 

It was not until the year 1913 that the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. 
abolished the system of scrip. Mr. Weitzel testifies (p. 1798): 

I was always against the scrip system, for the reason that I thought it taught im- 
providence to the men. They could run to the office and get their money every night, 
if they wanted to, or get their scrip, and it seemed to me that it taught or encouraged 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 29 

improvidence. I think any man is better off by being paid at stated times rather 
than every day. 

It is, however, used by the other coal operators. It is sometimes 
issued by the ''store company," which is owned by the mining com- 
pany, and this method of issuing is in reahty a subterfuge (pp. 1531, 
1532). The company will not cash it at its face value (p. 1470), and 
Supt. Snodgrass testified (p. 1211) that the company would not take 
scrip off the miners' hands at all. 

Q. In other words, if a man takes scrip, the company regards Mm as under a con- 
tract that he will spend that in the company's store. Is that right? — A. Yes (p. 1211). 

The use of scrip necessarily involves dealing at the company store, 
unless the miner is willing to part with it subject to the deductions 
made by others. The store company, of course, fixes the prices, and 
in some instances these prices are higher than they are in other stores 
(p. 2008). 

The system is at the best an evasion of the State law, and in some 
of its operations a direct violation of it. In these closed towns, where 
the only store is the company store, the men must trade there or go 
be3'ond the limits of the town (p. 1524). There is, indeed, a general 
understanding that the miner must trade at the company store (p. 
1096), and this understanding amounts in some places to compulsion 
(pp. 1080, 2161); as peddlers and farmers are excluded from the 
towns, the company store has a monopoly (pp. 1938, 1972, 1984). 

CHECKWEIGHMEN AND SHORT W^EIGHTS IN COLORADO — ^THE LAW. 

By Colorado's Session Laws of 1897, page 137 (Rev. Stat., 1908, 
sec. 665; 1 M. A. S., sec. 806), in force June 29, 1897, it was provided 
that in all coal mines working 20 or more miners underground, a 
checkweighman may be employed, to be selected and paid by the 
miners; that the owner shall give him free access to all scales and 
weights, and all books wherein weights are recorded. It is a mis- 
demeanor for any mine owner or operator to refuse him access to 
scales or books, the punishment being a fine of from $25 to S500. 

THE TESTIMONY. 

The testimony of violations of the checkweighmen statute, in addi- 
tion to what has been reviewed, shows the following situation: 

Witness Stark, speaking of the fact that the miners never had a 
checkweighman at Tabasco (p. 2038), added that the reason was that 
the miners were discharged before they could do anything in that 
direction. Witness Fyler (p. 1105) substantiated this view, with 
the modification that Supt. O'Neill came to him just before the strike 
and offered to allow a checkw^eighman at Tabasco. Witness Miller 
affirmed the same facts cf the Walsen and Robinson mines (p. 1958). 
Witness Game, who testified to working in many mines, stated that 
there never had been a checkweighman at any mine in which he had 
worked in Colorado (p. 1109). The evidence tended to show that 
the men realized their need of a checkweighman and that in his ab- 
sence tlie}^ were being subjected to short weights (p. 1952), and that 
in Fremont County, where checkweighmen were allow^ed, the men 
were satisfied wdth their scale weights (p. 1961). 



30 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

The lack of correct weights and of checkweighmen was one of the 
grievances of 10 years ago. (Report of United States Commissioner 
of Labor on Labor Disturbances in Colorado, p. 331, published inl905.) 

There has been a mass of testimony submitted to the committee 
as to short weights. It is not conceivabb that the complaints would 
be so general were they not based on facts. 

Miners of long experience testify that short weight has been " the 
main complaint" (p. 1007); that "it was short weight all the time" 
(p. 878); again, "I thought the weight was getting worse all the 
time" (p. 2372). 

It is clear that at many mines the scales have been inaccurate (pp. 
77, 78, 2034, 2182, 2303). Besides general statements, more specific 
instances of short weight are testified to, as, for example. Bell stated 
that while he was superintendent he found the men were not getting 
full weight (p. 195). The mine foreman at Bowen learned of it 
there (p. 311). Another witness testified as to this mine (p. 859) : 

Q. How do you know you didn't get your weights? — A. Well, there was one way 
I could tell — ^by the car; that there was more than a ton in it; sometimes 2 tons. 
Sometimes a man would get 25, 28, 30. On the two cars I loaded I loaded both the 
same, both the same-sized cars — I got one 28; another one, I think, about 37. 

A driver tells how he switched a small car and a large car and 
proved in this manner the short weight (p. 1970). A Hastings miner 
testified how he and his buddy were docked alternately, though they 
loaded the same kind of cars, in the same room, in the same way 
{p. 1275). The witness Ray gives particular instances of short 
weights (pp. 2006, 2007), as does Owens (p. 2034). 

Nearly every miner witness testified that the men feared discharge 
if they should request a checkweighman. It seems true that the real 
explanation of the situation is that given by Peet: The having a 
checkweighman is a step toward recognition of the union (p. 1944; 
see pp. 2038, 2366) ; the men thus become bound together and cease 
being those ''individual" contractors with whom the operators so 
much desire to deal. 

Members of the committee were naturally curious to get at the 
motive for short weighing; whatever the motive may be, the fact 
exists. One of the explanations, probably, is that each subordinate 
officer is trying to make the best possible showing in his special work 
or department. Mr. Murray, general manager of the Victor- American, 
testifies (p. 1904): 

Q. That question has been asked several times — of the possible motive anybody 
could have for short weighing the coal. In some cases it might be found in the ambi- 
tion of somebody to reduce. He wouldn't personally benefit by it except by making 
a better showing for his plant? — A. His own cost; it would affect his own cost. 

Q. So that, while the persons short weighing the coal wouldn't receive any benefit 
beyond what he and those who are responsible for the conduct of the mine would get 
credit from the company— from Mr. Osgood, for instance, the president of the com- 
pany, who naturally expects you all to make the best showing possible? — A. That is 
what we are therefor, sir. 

Short weighing seems to have been such a common matter in 
Colorado that it is hardly regarded by the superintendents as a grave 
offense. Its exasperating and, mdeed, unendurable injustice can 
not, however, escape attention. Alone and unsupported, a grievance 
of this character is so insistent and pervasive as to foreshadow, 
and, if unrelieved, compel industrial revolt in the form of strikes. 
It lends color to every charge of greed. The miner is persuaded that 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OP COLORADO. 31 

his pocket is being daily, hourly, and systeniatically j)lundered. 
Nothing compensates for this growing sense of wrong; and the talk of 
good wages from a feiuhilism purporting to be benevolent, presents 
itself to» the worker only in the light of hypocritical denial of the 
wages to which the worker is really entitled, and of which he is ad- 
mittedly and continuously deprived, 

THE MATTER OF WAGES. 

As just suo-gested, confronted by uncontroverted conditions and 
grievances like these, the operators seek to divert attention from 
them by the citation of individual cases of alleged good wages. 
From tnousands of employees, they choose selected instances on 
which unstintedly to pride themselves. It might naturally be sug- 
gested that their feudahsm has the added similarity to its medieval 
model of occasional favorites and beneficiaries and instances are 
even paraded to conceal the general practice. No adequate light is 
attempted to be thrown by the operators — not to mention the injus- 
tices akeady complained of — on the cost of living, on deductions, on 
averages, or on annual earnings in an occupation admittedly both 
seasonal and dangerous. 

At the outset it is asserted and apparently conceded that higher 
w^ages are paid to coal miners in Wyoming than in Colorado (pp. 
84, 86). Mr. Osgood's statement is as follows (p. 431): 

The clay wage for timber men in Wyoming is ^3.45 a day; in Colorado $3.12 a day; 
for track layers it is the same ; for shot firers they pay in Wyoming |3.90 and in Colorado 
$3.24. The machine runners in Wyoming are paid $3.90 and in Colorado $3.84. You 
can see there is no continuity . I am just giving you a few of these. Machine helpers, 
$3.45 in Wyoming and S3. 36 in Colorado. So that I can not figure the average. I can 
only say that their wages as a rule are liigher for day labor than ours are. 

The averages in Colorado do not show phenomenal earnings. Wit- 
ness Hammond estimates his average monthly earnings at $85, and 
states he "was getting about the best of the run of the mine''; that 
he ''had no complaint," but, on the other hand, had two brothers 
who would never dig coal under the conditions in southern Colorado 
to-day (p. 1013). Witness Anderson estimated his average earnings 
at $80 a month for the year preceding September 1, .1913 (p. 1969). 
State Labor Commissioner Brake, speaking of the varying scales of 
wages paid miners, and taking the Berwincl property as an example, 
testified the average gross wages per miner per year in 1912 was 
$669.82, and that the average gross earnings per day for the 312 days 
would be $2.24. This would leave only 11 idle days in the year, and 
does not include some fixed charges, such as buying powder and smith- 
ing (pp. 84, 85). It is true that Mr. Welborn took issue with these 
figures. His testimony shows the facility with which different aver- 
ages ma}^ be figured, and, in fact, the misleading character of any 
unexplained tabulations (pp. 521, 522). Mr. Welborn allows deduc- 
tions of "about $25 or $26 a year" (p. 522). The miner's monthly 
earnings so estimated run from $83.60 to $95.52 (p. 522), save in 
exceptional cases, where men are earning more. 

These figures include payment, wherever there is any, for dead 
work. It is manifest, as testified, that conditions in the different 
mines affect all earnings and averages (p. 603). The witness who 
testified as to this made the interesting suggestion that the unions 



32 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

had bettered wages, but not earnings; that the average earnings of a 
coal miner in northern Colorado had been from $350 to $600 per year 
prior to the strike, and that after the strike the average earnings 
were $868 to $918 (pp. 602-603). Witness Thomasela testified to 
average earnings for coal miners at Wootton of $75 a month. There, 
as in many other cases with varying conditions (p. 188), the work- 
men were docked in wages for impurities in the coal. This is, of 
course, something apart from the complaints already referred to on 
the score of short weights. The serious character of the docking is 
shown by the testimony of Witness Glad (p. 1275), by whom a loss 
of as much as three cars in one day is reported. This witness testi- 
fied to earnings of approximately $65 a month, the highest earnings 
being just before the strike (p. 1276). Witness Murray, formerly 
superintendent of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., more recently with 
the Victor- American Fuel Co., supplemented the testimony about 
higher wages being paid coal miners in Wyoming by stating that the 
wages are also higher in Montana than in Colorado (p. 1895). 

The record showing on the whole subject of wages, as already in- 
dicated, must be read in the Ught of the admitted dangers of the occupa- 
tion, the just grievances along all other lines of employment, and the 
deductions partly testified to and clearly inherent in the work, not to 
mention the cost of living in the coal-mining fields. There are one or 
two intimations as to deductions which may be mentioned in passing. 
Witness Williams testified to a deduction of $1 for the doctor, although 
the witness had worked but one day at Sopris, the deduction on this 
score being commonly $1 per month (p. 1117). Witness Game testi- 
fied to expenses, termed by him deductions, of $6 for the house rent, 
taken out for the whole month from the first haK pay; $1.05 for elec- 
tric lights for three rooms; 50 cents for blacksmith; 50 cents for 
bath; $1 for hospital; and a total of about $16 for the first half of the 
month (p. 1109). It is manifest that testimony along these lines is 
endless, but the recital of so much is thoroughly illustrative of the 
innumerable human elements that enter into any consideration of the 
average or any wage in coal mining; and, as said before, fundamen- 
tally we are brought back from the question whether of low, high, or 
average wages to the justice of the grievances of the coal miners all 
along the fine of their employment. 

PREVENTABLE MINE ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS. 

The extremely hazardous conditions surrounding the coal mining 
industry in Colorado might be fully elaborated from the record. It 
is almost sufficient for our purposes, however, to direct attention to 
the statistics and statements in the evidence of James Dalrymple, 
the State inspector of coal mines. His State report (Bureau of 
Labor Statistics, 1911-12, pp. 263-264) shows a total of fatalities 
in 1911 and 1912 in the coal-mining industry in Colorado of 189, a 
total number of injuries of 661, with one dust explosion at Coke- 
dale, where 17 men lost their lives, and one gas explosion at Hastings, 
where 12 men met death. That the toll of death continues is shown 
by the catastrophe at the Vulcan mine, on the western slope, occurring 
since the State report cited, but testified about by Mr. Dalrymple 
(pp. 28, 31, 43), where 37 miners were killed. Mr. Dalrymple's 
testimony is particularly impressive because it appears that the 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 33 

dust explosion was due to lack of use of the apparatus the mine 
possessed, and the fatalities were, therefore, preventable (p. 28). 
He also testified that, in his judgment, the accident was due to the 
superinti^ndent and the mine foreman (p. 43), and that the property 
was run as a nonunion mine, when, in fact, generally speaking, it 
would have been safer for the men if run on a union basis (p. 32). 

Mr. Dalrymple's testimony is, furtlier, of the most tragic character, 
compelling an unusual sympathy for the situation of the coal miner^s 
in Colorado, in that he testifies that from the time Colorado started 
to produce coal until 1909, the number of deaths in this State in the 
coal-mining industry have been nearly two to one for the United 
States as a whole, and that from 1909 to 1913 about three and ont- 
third to one (p. 21). He testified further (p. 22) that a great many 
of the accidents from falls of rock and falls of coal are preventable, 
and that tliey could easily be cut in two. This view was supported by 
his record as State inspector of coal mines, published by the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1911-12, p. 264), 
wherein appears the following statement: 

In going over the reports of fatalities made by the deputies and myself, my opinion 
is that over 50 per cent of all the fatal accidents were avoidable. This is especially 
so of the accidents. from falls of rock and coal. In the majority of the accidents the 
deceased or injured person is held responsible because of negligence on his part. I do 
not agree with this, because I believe incompetence, and not negligence, is the cause, 
and the person Mho is so incompetent that he knows practically nothing about the 
business in which he is engaged, and is able to understand practically nothing of what 
is said to him by those in charge, should not be held responsible for accidents to him- 
self or others through his actions. 

It is characteristic of the lack of intimate knowledge on the part of 
coal operators of the coal-mining business that Mr. Osgood, when 
asked whether he knew the facts as to between 1,300 and 1,400 deaths 
having occurred from mining accidents in Colorado since 1896, 
answered: ''I do not," and that Mr. Osgood disagreed with the State 
coal mining inspector as to the recognition of the unions having any- 
thing to do with the diminishing of accidents (p. 470). 

workers' compensation for ACCIDENTS AND DEATH AND CORONER's^ 

JURIES. 

An attempt was made early in the hearing to create the impression, 
particularly with reference to the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., that a 
liberal practice of settlement in cases of damage had reheved the 
company from any great frequency in the bringing of damage suits 
(pp. 495-496) and, in the same connection, the humanitarian atti- 
tude of the? same company through the maintenance of hospital 
facilities and care for families was emphasized (pp. 494-495), although 
the admitted practice of collecting $1 a month from each of the 
thousands of employees of the company would naturally create an 
annual hospital fund considerably in excess of $100,000. 

The testimony as to the actual practices in Las Animas and Huer- 
fano Counties, so far as the same was specifically taken, does not 
support the glowing picture painted by their head officials on behalf 
of those companies. The pathetic case of Mrs. Easier (p. 1872) is 
an instance in point. Her father, W. H. Bradley, was killed June 
13, 1910, while w^orking at the Primero mine cleaning up after the 

44431—14 3 



34 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

disastrous explosion there of that year. He had been a weigh boss 
and checkweighman at Sopris. He was killed by a faU of rock, and 
the witness testified that counsel for the company stated that she 
and her mother ought to be satisfied with a $20 casket in settlement. 
According to the witness, counsel later denied knowledge of her 
father's death (pp. 1872-1875). The coroner's jury was reported to 
have rendered a verdict in the matter, but no records were discov- 
ered (pp. 1874, 1897). The case derives added tragedy from the 
fact that the widow is in a private sanitarium suffering from insan- 
ity caused by her husband's death (p. 1873). 

For manifest reasons, no attempt was made to add such stories to 
an alread}^ lengthy record. Enough understandirig of the legal situ- 
ation as to workmen's compensation in southern Colorado may be 
derived from the review of some of the testimony bea^ring on coroner's 
verdicts. Witness Campbell, (inciertaker and deput}^ coroner, 
custodian of the records, testified from them (p. 1829) that m many 
cases of violent death no inquests were held; that the names of jurors 
by oversight were on itted from such records in the coroner's ofhce; 
that a foreman named Baldwin, who acted in that capacity in all 
recorded cases except six in the two years 1911 and 1912, was an 
old-timer with plenty of leisure, and the witness expressed the opinion 
that the record in the case of Wyatt Backner, age 40, whose death was 
attributed to an accident by fall of rock, with the notation : ''Accident; 
fall of rock in mine; internal injuries; pelvic region; no relatives and 
damn few friends," was not the ordinary and usual verdict. It is 
submitted that in view of the evidence just referred to, whether the 
verdict was usual or not, it wp.s typical of heartlessness and judicial 
maladministration in the entire coroner's jury S3^stem so far as revealed 
in Las Animas and Huerfano Counties. Many of the records were 
shown to be missing (p. 1832), including the record of death of Mrs. 
Easley's father. Witness Weitzel, general manager of the Colorado 
Fuel &.Iron Co. for the past six 3^ears, admitted that during that time 
few coroner juries' verdicts suggesting negligence on the part of the 
company had been rendered in case of fatal accidents. 

The only exception he recalled was the verdict in the case of the 
Starkville explosion (p. 1805). The record shows as a typical verdict 
that of a coroner's jury of six, five of whom w^ere employees of the 
Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., reporting on the death of 75 or more men 
at the Primero mine January 31, 1910; that the cause of the explo- 
sion ' 4s to this jury unknown " (p. 177). The information is embodied 
in the Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Colorado, 
1909-10, the particular report being made by Witness Coray, at 
that time specially delegated by the labor commissioner to investi- 
gate the Primero accident (p. 174). Witness Ray testified that in 
the case of a death of a coal miner at the Rider Coal Co. property a 
week before the witness appeared at the hearing, the witness advised 
Coroner Sipe, of Las Animas County, that he thought there should 
be some miners on the coroner's jury, and that during all the years 
in which he had been in the camp he had never heard of any practical 
miner being caUed on a coroner's jury. The coroner stated that he 
did not know any but two of those w^ho sat on that particular jur3^ 
The verdict returned was '^mavoidable accident" (p. 2011). Dr. 
Beshoar, a prominent citizen of Trinidad, threw some light on the 
possible connection between such practices in the use of coroner's 



CONDITIONS IX THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 35 

juries and the coal operators by his testimony to the effect that the 
coroner, at one time, at least, was connected hi business with the coal 
companies (p. 1328). It would appear unnecessary at this time to 
elaborate further on tliis phase of the record. The political situation 
in Las Animas and Huerfano Counties, which will be mentioned later, 
will furth.er sliow conclusively the grievances of the workers in south- 
ern Colorado in the vital affairs in question. 

PRIVATE DETECTIVES AS MINE GUARDS — THE MAKING OF PRIVATE 

WAR. 

We turn, for the time being, from causes to the conduct of the 
strike. There has been during its continuance, as there has been in 
most of the great strikes in this country for the last 30 years, a 
commerce in irresponsible professional guards, which has resulted in 
bloody conflicts. The criminaHtj^ of this commerce has been too 
often demonstrated. As long ago as 1892 committees of both 
Houses of Congress condemned it as a vicious practice. These 
professional guards, under the general designation of "private 
detectives," thrive on violence which they either commit themselves 
or provoke others to commit. In permitting the em^ployment during 
labor disputes of these companies of irresponsible armed men by 
powerful emplo3"ers, the Government surrenders its pohce power 
into the hands of one of the parties to the dispute, and the natural 
consequences follow. These desperate men, whose trade is trouble, 
are made peace officers of the Commonwealth to which they are 
strangers . Belk, the imported assistant superintendent of the Baldwin- 
Felts detectives, is made deputy sheriff in three counties of Colorado 
(p. 2485); he has been deputy sheriff in West Virginia and North 
Carohna during labor troubles (pp. 341, 342). Felts was made 
deputy sheriff three months after he came to Colorado (p. 352) ; two 
groups of deputy sheriffs — of 24 and 42 men, respective!}^ — were 
brought in from Texas (p. 2384). 

In 1913, the Legislature of Colorado enacted a law designed partially 
to remedy this evil. (Session Laws, 1913, chap. 71.) This act 
provided Ihat no person should be appointed a deputy sheriff unless 
he had been a citizen of the State for at least one year, and of the 
county where appointed six months, and a quahfied voter in such 
county; and further made it a penal offense for any persons, firm, or 
corporation, to procure the appointment of any deputies "for the 
purpose of hiring such deputies at the expense of such person, persons, 
firm, or corporation, under pretense of guarding private property"; 
but this act has been '^referredy 

The evils of the practice of hiring professional guards, ^' which is 
rapidly becomins: a vital menace to American society," are pointed 
out by an English detective, Thomas Beet, the American representa- 
tive of the ex-inspector of Scotland Yard, in a paper in Appleton's 
Magazine: 

There is another phase of the private-detective evil which has worked untold 
damage in America. This is the private-constabulary system, by which armed 
forces are employed during labor troubles. It is a condition akin to the feudal sys- 
tem of warfare, when private interests can employ troops of mercenaries to wage war 
at their command. 

Ostensibly these armed private detectives are hurried to the scene of the trouble to 
maintain order and prevent destruction of property, although this work always should 



36 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLOEADO. 

be left to the official guardians of the peace. That there is a sinister motive back 
of the employment of these men has been shown time and again. Have you ever 
followed the episodes of a great strike and noticed that most of the disorderly out- 
breaks were so guided as to work harm to the interests of the strikers? It is not 
going too far to state that many of the strikes ha^e been lost to the workers because, 
after a time, public sympathy and support have been withdrawn. And this change 
of i;)ublic sentiment invariably follows the alleged lawless and ^-iolent acts of strikers. 
Therefore instead of preventing these acts it is to the interest of the employers that 
they should occur. 

In this, perhaps, lies, usually, the reason why private detectives are brought on 
the scene. Before e^■ery duty to the public, as a whole, their duty consists inbring- 
ing about the result desired by their employers — that is. breaking the strike. Time 
and again it has been shown that private detectives employed eveiy effort, fair or 
foul, to accomplish this end by turning the public against the strikers. Private 
detectives, unsuspected in their guise of workmen, mingle with the strikers and, 
by incendiary talk or action, sometimes stir them, to \iolence. T\Tien the work- 
men will not participate, it is an easy matter to stir up the disorderly faction, which 
is invariably attracted by a strike, although it has no connection therewith. 

* * * * * * ' -x- 

In one of the greatest of our strikes, that involving the steel industry, over 2,000 
armed detectives were employed supposedly to protect property, while several hun- 
dred more were scattered in the ranks of the strikers as workmen. Many of the latter 
became officers in the labor bodies, helped to make laws for the organizations, made 
incendiary speeches, cast their votes for the most radical movements made by the 
strikers, participated in and led bodies of the members in the acts of lawlessness that 
eventually caused the sending of State troops and the declaration of martial law. 
While doing this, these spies within the ranks were making daily reports of the plans 
and piu'poses of the strikers. ("Methods of American private detective agencies," 
Appleton's Magazine, vol. S. pp. 437. 444.) [ ' -^ [ ^ 

As a disclosure of the nature of this traffic in treachery, we com- 
mend to those operators whose interests persuade them that they are 
fighting for a principle the testimony in this record of the perfidious 
boy, Langowski (p. 2305), and his paymaster and mentor, Mont Mas- 
singale (p. 2346), the mine sruarcl. It is not easy to say which is the 
more amazing — this boy tmitor spy's inordinate egotism or his utter 
falseness. And Massicgale, the mii^e guard, in the uniform of the 
State militia, brings this spy and traitor before this committee. And 
what of that other traitor, Jesse Shaw, the self-confessed embezzler 
from the union (p. 1753^ who urged the union men to kill the mine 
guards (p. 1921) ^ 

Such despicable beir.gs in the pay of the operators, while at the 
same time drawing union benefits — intimate with superintendents and 
mice guards — are the ready tools of the gunmen in creating and fos- 
tering violence. A cause which needs such allies is indeed a desperate 
one. 

TIOLEXCE DURIXG THE STRIKE. 

Everyone must deplore the violence that has occurred during this 
strike. The testimony in regard to much of it came before the com- 
mittee in such form as to be somewhat confusing, until it is carefully 
analyzed. In view of the real causes of the strike, wliich we believe 
are unquestionably estabhshed, the committee may regard much of 
the evidence concerning violence as immaterial, for it is well known 
that violence generally accompanies prolonged strikes. Neverthe- 
less, some of the evidence taken is so extraordinary, when carefully 
examined, and is so illuminating as to the responsibility of the 
operators through their hired guards for the beginning of actual 
violence, that a partial review of some of the so-called battles should 
be made. Much testimony was ehminated bv the committee, but 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 37 

the record sufficiently shows that the astounding attack by mine 
guards on the union tont colony at Forbes, following, as it did, some 
skirmishes at Ludlow, preceded the most widespread trouble in Las 
Aniams County, and the tragic killings of union men on Seventh 
Street, in Walsenburg, similarly preceded the La Veta shooting and 
other disturbances in Huerfano County. The committee will not 
now -snsh their time taken up by a consideration of all the different 
shootings; but, for the reasons stated, we deem it important to direct 
attention to some of them. 

PROVOCATION OF STRIKERS AT THE LUDLOW TENT COLONY. 

It seems to be admitted that the first serious violence involving 
any number of men was that which occurred on October 7, 1913, 
when the automobile trip was taken by the Baldwin-Fclts detectives 
and their friends from Trinidad to Hastings. Belk, the assistant 
superintendent of the Baldwin-Felts agency, was in charge of this 
party. He was familiar with the region about Ludlow, for before 
the strike he had been up there ''off and on," and had been looking 
for Lippiatt, a union organizer (p. 1565). It will be remembered 
that Lippiatt met death at the hands of Belk and Belcher on the 
streets of Trinidad in August (p. 271). It will appear from a quota- 
tion from the testimony presently to be made, that Belk realized 
that his presence was likely to aggravate the strikers. In the auto- 
mobile party on that afternoon of October 7 there were Watson, the 
chauffeur; Belk; Holt; Belcher; Larson; and Chapin. All these men, 
except the first named, were employees of the operating companies 
or, like Larson, were indirectly interested with them. The only 
really disinterested man in the group, Watson, the chauffeur, was not 
called as a witness. 

Belk, the experienced detective and strike breaker, describing 
what happened in the early afternoon, testifies (p. 2479): 

When we got over the hill in sight of the colony, we noticed a bunch of men — I 
supposed it was boys playing ball — running across the prairie in our direction. Not 
noticing it at all, or not paying particular attention, we kept going. * * * Sud- 
denly there was an explosion right at our right-hand wheel. The chauffeur thought 
it was a blow-out. So did I. * * * As soon as the noise of the engine stopped, 
you could hear rifles spitting. * * * >jot very much system to their deploying; 
but they were deploying. They kept shooting," and, as soon as the car stopped. 
Mr. Belcher and Mr. Larson and Mr. Watson, the chauffeur, and myself got out of 
the car, and immediately ive realized ivhat ivas going on. 

It is very clear, then, that Belk wishes us to understand that he 
anticipated not the slightest trouble; indeed, trouble was so far 
from his mind that he took these strikers for ''boys playing baU." 

But Chapin, an employee of the Victor-American Co., was also in 
the automobile, and gives us a different story (pp. 1538^ 1539): 

Q. Did you see any ammunition in the machine, or were the men carrying belts 
with cartridges? — A. Well, I don't remember seeing any ammunition in the car. I 
think they took it out of their pockets and loaded up the guns. 

Q. Out of their pockets? — A. I believe so. 

Q. The guns were not loaded, then, when they began? — A. They were not loaded 
until the trouble was anticipated. 

Q. Until what? — A. Until trouble was expected. 

Q. Until it was expected — when was it expected? — A. About the time we raised that 
hill there. 

Q. And then they pulled their guns, did they, and loaded the guns? — A. Yes, sir. 



38 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

Again Holt, the manager of the Stores Co. at Dehigua, gives his 
version of the affair (p. 1573). 
By Mr. Evans: 

Q. Were all your people surprised when you vrere shot at there? — A. I think they 
were. 

Q. Did you hear the witnesses here this morning testify that they anticipated they 
would be shot at, or assaulted, when they went up the hill and made the raise of the 
hill? — A. I didn't anticipate anything like that or I wouldn't have been in there. 

Q. Yes; but did you hear the witnesses this morning testify to that? — ^A. I can't 
say; I didn't hear any of Mr. Larson's testimony, except in spots; I don't remember 
hearing that. 

Q. You didn't hear Mr. Chapin, then, testify that they anticipated trouble as they 
went — made the raise of the hill? — A. I heard Mr. Chapin make a remark that sounded 
something like that, but I didn't get all of it. I couldn't hear very plainly. 

Q. Wasn't the matter discussed as you went on the trip that there might be trouble 
on the trip? — A. None whatever. As we were gr)ing out this man Larson — I nevar 
met him before — made the remark, "I would like to see the white city — the tent 
colony."' I didn't care about going up to the tent colony with Mr. Belk and Mr. 
Belcher, because there had been some talk about it in the paper — some threats. You 
understand my feeling on the subject. Mr. Belk was in front of me, and I said to 
Mr. Belk. "Are you going by the tent colom-? " when Mr. Larson asked this question, 
"or are you going by the Berwind cut-off? "' He says, ''We are going by the Berwind 
cut-off." He says, "You know those people are rather aggravated, and I don't believe 
in aggravating them any further. We will stay on our own property, and if there is 
anything done we will be in the clear." 

Mr. XoRTHCUTT. Who said that? 

The Vv'iTXESS. Mr. Belk; and I was very much relieved to hear him say he was 
going out of the way. 

We submit that these varying stories conclusively demonstrate the 
unreliability of these witnesses. Larson, brother of the chief clerk of 
the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., was also a passenger in the automobile 
that afternoon, but has little to say about it. He is a very willing 
operators' witness and little reliance could be placed upon anything 
material that he might say, to judge from his testimony. For, in 
speaking of the speech of Mother Jones before his hotel (p. 1546), he 
says: 

She got up on a chair in front of a window and talked to the strikers. Of course / 
could not hear what she said. I was inside the hotel. 
Q. You didn't hear what she was saying? — A. No. 

This was evidently a disappointing answer to the operators^ 
counsel. On the very next page Larson says : 

And one minute she would he telling them to disperse, and the next minute she would 

fly up in the air and 

Q. I thought you said you didn't hear her a moment ago? — A. I didn't hear all of it. 

His account of this occurrence of October 7 is that after they had 
passed the small hill — 

We saw a big crowd of men coming across from the tent colony * * * these 
men were running — 

This witness also thought they were playing baseball, though 
they were '^coming toward us; and then the dirt started up and we 
could hear the bullets whistling" and "we came to the conclusion that 
there was shooting," etc. (p. 1543); he says nothing of the conversa- 
tion with Belk as to the latter's being a cause of aggravation to the 
strikers. 

Direct testimony from elisinterested parties shows that the first 
shooting on this afternoon of October 7 came from the direction of 
the automobile and toward Ludlow. Mrs. Derr was not the wife of a 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 39 

striker, nor was she living at the tent colony, but her house is (Hrectly 
across the Colorado & Southern tracks at Ludlow. vShe testifies 

(p. 732): 

1 heard shots, two shots, before the battle. Sounded like they came from the hill 
between Tobasco and Hastings. 

Q. The hill between Tobacco and Hastings? — A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Do >on know which way the bullets or shots went? — A. They went on toward 
lAidlow from the hill. 

Courtney, the railroad conductor, while at the Ludlow station, 
heard the sound of a shot from the west or the direction of Hastings, 
and saw an automobile when he climbed to the top of a car (p. 1837). 
Afterwards he saw men running across the track into the field . There 
had been no people there before that. He is positive that the sound 
came from the direction of Hastings and not from the valley between 
of the first shot, that which caused him to go to the top of the car, 
the station and the High Line Road on which the automobile was pro- 
ceeding (p. 1840). 

Is it not strange that observing men like Purdum and McDermott, 
who were watcliing every day through their surveyor's transit for 
interesting events (p. 1648), and who had been, according to their 
statements, threatened Avith death earlier that very afternoon, should 
have heard notliing of this shooting in their neighborhood ? The}^ 
were not at all unwilling to go directly into this crowd wholly unarmed. 

The automobile party appears to have remained at Hastings about 
an hour before begmnmg its return trip. Belk, the leader, has noth- 
ing to say about this part of the excursion. Larson, however, says 
that after remaining from an hour to an hour and a half at Hastings 
they started back by the same road, with 10 or 12 mounted mine 
guards accompanymg them (pp. 1543, 1544). Though they replen- 
ished their ammunition and mcreased their force of fighters, Larson 
tells us that there never was anything said about their returning by 
the same road where they had been fired on an hour before (pp. 
1549, 1550). He says his party did not begin the firing on the 
return trip. '^We didn't see anybody to fire at" (p. 1544), ''but 
then some men began to fire, and we did return the fire." The 
admirable self-possession and restraint of Belk is shown by Larson 
when he testifies that after getting into the machine and starting 
back for Trinidad, ''We was going up to the Forbes tent colony, 
and ^Ir. Belk said if anybody shot from the tents not to shoot 
back" (p. 1544). In this connection we should not forget that it 
was Belk who was in charge of one of the machine guns at Forbes 
10 days later, and, in fact, was general manager of those terrible 
instruments of death, though he thinks that that it is his business, 
and that the pubhc has no concern with such matters (p. 2488). 

Besides the bodyguard of armed and momiteel men. Dr. Curry, of 
Hastings, says he accompanied in his buggy the automobile on its 
return trip from Hastings, though nowhere else in this recorel is 
there any showing that he was there. No one appears to have seen 
Dr. Curry fired at as he passed the shootmg mine guards in their 
automobile on the High Line Road (p. 1729). It will be remem- 
bered that Curry generally saw things through a glass and volun- 
teered so much interesting testimony as to cause surprise even to 
the operators' counsel, who exclaimed, "Tell us about that; that's 
new" (p. 1730). 



40 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

Dr. Curry saw a great deal thi-ough his glass and otherwise, at first 
being even willing to swear — although he caught himself after a 
noticeable pause — that he saw the match in the hands of the strikers 
who set fire to the section house (p. 1731); and yet this Dr. Curry 
never, in 17 years' association with them, had heard any complaints 
from the miners of southern Colorado as to their conditions, nor did 
he think they had any grievances, though he believed the miners of 
Pennsylvania and West Virginia had cause to complain (pp.' 1731, 
1735). We may suggest in passing that if Dr. Curry is a fair speci- 
men of mine surgeons, it is not surprising that the miners protest 
against being forced to pay their dollar a month for the mine doctor's 
support. 

Wennberg testifies that as he was returning from Hastings on the 
afternoon of October 7, where he had been refused his maS, he was 
shot at from the west, or Hastings' direction (p. 314). Amanteo, a 
witness for the operators, testified that on that afternoon, and before 
the shooting occurred, W^ennberg had been for his mail and was 
unable to get it (p. 1574). It may be that this shooting from the west 
toward Wennberg and toward the tent colony, which he was approach- 
ing, was done by the guards on their return trip. But, however that 
may be, the shot near Wennberg, coming from that direction, would 
not serve to make the tent colonists feel better disposed tow^ard the 
guards. McDermott says the shooting lasted about 30 minutes (p. 
1626). Larson savs that firing continued about an hour and a half 
(p. 1551). 

McDermott was a very willing operators' witness and attempted to 
convey the impression that on the day after this first battle a bridge 
on the road had been deliberately broken down; but Wooley, the 
mine guard, who went down on the 9th of October to repair the 
bridge, says it had been '^washed out" the day before (p. 1761). 
The important admission, however, is made by McDermott in this 
connection, that the guards who came to repair the bridge ' ' told us to 
be on the lookout for some trouble after dinner^' (p. 1627). It is very 
clear, then, that these 15 or 20 armed guards who came down after 
dinner on October 9 from the canyons to Ludlow expected and desired 
trouble, and the first shooting on that afternoon again came from 
the west toward Ludlow. (See McGregor, p. 909.) It was on that 
afternooii that one of the guards told Mrs. Powell of the death of her 
husband in these words: ''None of our men were killed, but we got 
ouQ of Mr. Green's cow-punchers" (p. 1913). 

TilE ATTACK OX THE FORBES TEXT COLOXY. 

A week elapsed before tie attack on the Forbes tent colony, 
October 17. On this occasion the mine guards added to their other 
weapons the operators' machine guns, and, without warning, made 
this barbarous assault upon the colony from their armored automobile. 
It was fitting that there was chosen to play an important part in this 
diabolical episode the itinerant desperado, Kennedy, who, having 
run away from home at the age of 9, enUsted in the iTiited States 
Army at 13 under a false oath, then swore allegiance to the British 
Government and enlisted in the Englisli army at 20, and finally 
leaving India, came to Colorado for ifurther fighting as soldier of 
fortune, militiaman, and deputy sherifl' (pp. 1721, 1725). 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO, 41 

The testimony of Mrs. Abbie Johnson, whose disinterested dignity 
and respectabihty as a witness compel faith in her statements, con- 
victs Kennedy of vilest treachery and shows the desperate methods 
that these Baldwin-Felts '^deputies" and allies resorted to in their 
work as strike breakers (p. 952). With at least two machine guns 
trained on the tents, Kennedy gave the signal for the raking fire which 
continued mercilessly from early afternoon till dark, riddling the 
tents, killing one man, and sending nine bullets into the boy Zamboni, 
crippling him for life. The men operating these rapid-fire guns cared 
nothing whether there were women and children in the tents, and made 
no inquiry about the wounded or the dead. (Belk, p. 2483; Wilson, 
p. 1713.) 

Such were the early provocations to violence brought to the tent 
colonies, accompanied by the reports that more guards were coming 
down to ''clean out every man, woman, and child" (p. 918). 

OTHER INSTANCES OF VIOLENCE. 

An analysis of the evidence presented to the committee relating to 
subsequent shootings would show many discrepancies and contradic- 
tions in the testimony of witnesses who sought to fix the whole re- 
sponsibility for violence on the strikers ; but w^e believe it would too 
greatly lengthen this brief to make this analysis, and in view of the 
facts shown as to the true beginning of the violence, such an analysis 
seems unnecessary. 

Human nature being what it is, it is too much to expect that this 
violence will cease till employers of great bodies of men cease to rely 
on spies, traitors, detective agencies, and armed guards for peace in 
industrial disputes. Employers and men alike are the victims of this 
mistaken policy. The chief purpose of professional strike breakers 
is to prolong and embitter strikes, on which they thrive. Acting 
often in the nominal capacity of public peace officers they deceive 
the public and they deceive those who privately employ them with 
false reports as to proposed deeds of violence on the part of strikers. 
The course of this strike shows what has been shown in every other, 
that violence begins by assaults on strikers near their homes and that 
at length, provoked by these assaults and threats, some of the strikers 
seek to retaliate. 

A judicial recognition of the frequency of violence during strikes 
is found in the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in 
Knoxville Iron Co. v. HarUson (1901), (183 U. S., 13, 21), where 
Mr. Justice Shiras, upholding the law requiring the payment of wages 
in money as tending to equalize conditions between employer and 
employee, and therefore as a proper exercise of police pov/er, quotes 
with approval the language of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, 
upholding the law as ''intended and well calculated to promote peace 
and good order and to prevent strife, Anolence, and bloodshed." 

THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS. 

Some of the evidence was devoted to a consideration of the pur- 
chases of arms and ammunition by the respective parties to this 
strike. Without adverting at this time to the miners' complaint con- 
cerning the loaning of imported rapid-firing guns and other weapons 



42 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

by the coal companies to the mihtia and mine guards masquerading 
as deputy sheriffs, it will be sufficient at this time to cite the follow- 
ing constitutional provision: 

That the right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, 
and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be 
called in question. (Constitution of Colorado, Art. II, sec. 13.) 

Even the witness Blood, attorney for one of the leading coal com- 
panies, conceded the same rights in this respect to strikers that he 
claimed for the operators (p. 2424). He says (p. 2415) in testifying 
to his conversation with the governor of the State and the sheriff of 
Boulder County: 

Then Capp said that he would go into the inclosure and do this thing and that thing, 
and the governor said he would do this thing and that thing, and I said, "You will not 
enter. You will not go there, because the first man inside that inclosure without per- 
mission, my orders will be to shoot, and I will give instructions to shoot him." 

In making this reference we are not, of course, defending this 
witness's attitude toward the governor and the sheriff, however 
typical it is of the autocratic insolence of the industrial feudalism of 
Colorado. 

THE MILITIA. 

There was no complete showing made before the committee of the 
many just causes of complaint that all good citizens have against the 
Organized Militia of Colorado for their conduct in this strike. We 
wish to say at the outset of our consideration of this subject that we 
recognize the fact that there are many officers and privates in the 
Organized Militia of Colorado who are not subject to criticism, and 
who have shared in the humiliation thrust upon the State by others, 
without having had a suitable opportunity to clear themselves as 
individuals from the charges which have been justly brought against 
the militia as a whole. 

Quite as much time as the committee had to consider all the 
varied phases of the strike would have been required to attend prop- 
erly to this one subject. Enough was brought out, however, to con- 
vince any impartial and just person of several important facts. 

The most important general fact proved is that while the State 
guard was oster-sibly sent into the field to preserve order, it served 
in reality as a strike-breaking agency for the operators. Among the 
many bits of evidence conclusively showing this fact, that brought 
out by Capt. Nickerson is one of the most convincing. He was 
called by the operators to show how well the provisions of the State 
law prohibiting the importation into the State of deceived strike 
breakers were complied with. He seemed to be intelligent and truth- 
ful. He gave an account of how he conducted an investigation of a 
trainload of imported strike breakers, and stated that all the inves- 
tigations were conducted on the same line as the one he had detailed 
and for the same purpose (p. 1586). Hence, it is interesting to see 
how this investigation was conducted. On reaching the train carry- 
ing these strike breakers, he found three or four civilians in charge. 
These were coal company employees whom he had never known 
before. He was given about 50 of the ''contracts" of the strike 
breakers in order to ascertain whether they understood these con- 
tracts, purporting to be signed by them. He spoke to 10 or 15 of 
those on the train. The rest were asleep. He found that some of 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 43 

those to whom he spoke understood Spanish, but ho didn't know 
whether there were any PoUsh or other Slavic ])eople in the group. 
He does not read any of the Shivic hinguai2;es and very Uttle ItaUan. 
(See pp. 1587, 1588.) Plainly these three or four eivilian employees 
of the coal opera thig companies imposed upon tlie good nature of the 
captain. Yet this is the only evidence of anything that the militia 
did toward the investigation of the importation of large trainloads 
of strike breakers like those poor beings who appeared before the 
committee. 

In WW of the many violations of law committed by militiamen 
in the strike zc-no, the testimony of one witness that the military 
password, which opened for him all gates, was the phrase ''under the 
law," is really burlesque. He says: 

And the soldiers just as soon as they heard that word, they would let me go wherever 
I wanted to go — everywhere I wanted to go with the pass. (Yamicely, p. 1168.) 

We suggest in passing that ''law is something more than mere 
will exerted as an act of power." 

One of the first violations of fundamental law by the militia oc- 
curred when Gen. Chase issued his order of November 15 to the 
district attorney of the third judicial district of the State of Ccl^rada, 
in which he notified the district atfcorne}^ — 

that all persons arrested, incarcerated, and held as military prisoners * * * are 
to be held subject to the order of the commanding general, military district of Colorado, 
in regard to their confinement, trial, and final disposition of their cases " (pp. 1246, 
2584). 

It is true, apparently, that no military prisoners were actually 
executed after military trial, though one, at least, died as the result 
of his unjust confinem.ent (p. 2047). 

There were many other instances of unwarranted arrest and de- 
tention brought to the attention of the committee, and, had time 
permitted, many more might have been shown. The governor of 
the State, in a conamunication to your chairman, WTitten on the last 
day the committee was in Colorado, and which we did not see until 
it appeared in print some five weeks later, states that ''Men were 
held in an attempt to secure e\adence" (p. 2838). Such detentions 
are wholly unconstitutional. Article II, section 17, of the constitu- 
tion of the State of Colorado provides: 

That no person shall be imprisoned for the purpose of securing his testimony in any 
case longer than may be necessary in order to take his deposition. If he can give se- 
curity he shall be discharged. If he can not, his deposition shall be taken by some 
judge at the earliest time he can attend. 

There was no warrant in law for the arrest and rearrest of Mother 
Jones and her long detention. That the governor, as commander in 
chief, as well as the commanding general, realized that they could 
not defend their conduct in regard to her is demonstrated by their 
evasion — twice repeated — of a hearing of her case in the supreme 
court. She was first deported and then twice imprisoned. She was 
charged with no crime and she had committed none. So far from 
being a disturbing element in the community, this record shows that 
she led a great parade in Trinidad after the strike had been called, 
and before the militia went to the field, on which occasion there 
was not the slightest disorder (Slator, p. 994) ; and when it is remem- 
bered that this parade occurred after the cruel attack on the Forbes 



44 COXDITIOXS IX THE COAL ZSHXES OF COLORADO. 

tent colony, when there might have been some justification for union 
sympatliizei^ showing their provocation, her real influence for good 
is seen. 

Andrew Colnar, though born in Crotia, has lived 18 years in Colo- 
rado and is an American citizen. At the request of a union friend, 
he wrote a letter in his native language to another friend, telling 
him if he wanted to come down and join the union he would be 
taken care of. For this he was arrested by the militia, imprisoned 
and handcuffed, and later tortured by being made to dig what he 
thought was his o^vn gi'ave. About two weeks later he told his 
story to the governor, but up to the time of this hearing he had 
obtained no redress. The representatives of the mihtia attempted 
on cross-examination to induce an admission from Cohiar that he 
knew it was all a joke, but no one who hears his story can doubt 
that it was no joke to him. and that he really thought his captors 
were going to shoot him and bury him in the grave he was digging 
(pp. 2052-2058). There was a suggestion by the mihtia during his 
examination that/he was digging a toilet: but even were this so, his 
arrest and detention and compulsion to work were not only in viola- 
tion of the thirteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution, but 
in violation of the similar provision relating to involuntary servitude 
in the constitution of Colorado, and come directly within the scope 
of the resolution authorizing and directing this investigation, being 
^vithin the purview of the fourth subdivision of that resolution, 
relating to the arrest, trial, or conviction of citizens of the United 
States in violation of the Constitution or the laws of the United 
States. 

The committee will recall other cases of illegal arrest: for example, 
railroad men were arrested on Christmas morning because they 
dechned to violate a Federal law at the command of the mihtia 
(p. 804). Mr. Stromberg, who has been a business man of Trinidad 
for 26 years, was arrested in his own doorway while inoffensively 
watching the crowd on a busy Saturday evening (p. 724). Mrs. 
Thomas was arrested and maltreated by the militia and kept in jail 
11 days, where it was necessary for her to have with her her small 
children, and there was not the pretext of a charge against her (p. 
795). Sarah Slator was arrested on the afternoon of the well-known 
women's parade in Trinidad just after Gen. Chase had fallen from 
his horse and had given his wrathful command to charge the women 
(p. 989). While this committee was in session ]Mr. Fyler, who had 
been a witness before the committee, was arrested with other union 
men while peacefully resting near the Ludlow tent colony, and they 
were all lined up against a brick pile with a cannon pointed at them 
(p. 1506). Lieut. Linderfelt was in charge of the mihtiamen who 
committed this atrocity. He was the mine guard who operated the 
machine gun at Berwind (p. 349). He tried in December to provoke 
Tikas so that he would have some excuse for beating him up Tp. 761). 
It was he also who on the last of December trained his machine gun 
with evident glee on the Ludlow tent colony. On the same day he 
sanctioned the arrest of Orf, and told him that he would not "blame 
that fellow if he had taken the butt of his gun and hit you in the 
jaw with it," adding — ''I am Jesus Christ and all these men on 
horses are Jesus Christ, and we have got to be obeved" (pp. 975, 
976). 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 45 

Linderfolt was complained of to the military authorities, but 
remained a militiaman (p. 968). 

It is unnecessary to quote authorities as to the gross violations of 
constitutional rights involved in these recitals. We content our- 
selves with one: 

This court has never attempted to define with precision the words "due process of 
law." It is sufficient to say that there are certain immutable principles of justice 
which inhere in the very idea of free government, which no member of the union may 
disregard, as that no man shall be condemned in his person or property without due 
notice and an opportunitv of being heard in his defense. {Holden v. Hardy, 169 U.S., 
389, 397.) 

We shall not discuss all the instances of militiamen's brutality 
shown by the record. We do, however, consider the evidence con- 
cerning these matters relevant to this investigation, as it demon- 
strates not only the true character of many of these guardians of 
"law and order," but the absurdity of the claim that the militia 
acted impartially toward operators and strikers. 

Impartiality on the part of the militia was an impossibility, for a 
great many militiamen influential with the rank and file — composed 
largeh' of inexperienced and impressionable youths — were guards 
hired by the companies. Mine guards were enlisted into the mil- 
itia in groups; for example, at Sopris 14 were enlisted on one day 
and 4 on the next (pp. 842, 2352); 8 guards enlisted at Hastings 
(p. 894). Mine guards were told thev must join the militia to hold 
tneir positions (p. 841 ) . One man with a mutilated hand was enlisted, 
the officer attending to the matter having turned his head away with 
the remark, "I can not see anything wrong with it" (p. 842). These 
men were paid both by the State and the coal companies (pp. 1797, 
2353). Men of the character of Linderfelt and Kennedy (of Forbes 
infamy), and Joseph D. Smith (who delighted to ' 'string a Congress- 
man"), and Massingale (who hired and guarded the spy, Langowsky), 
were guards and militiamen. When the guards were not members of 
the Organized Militia they worked in conjunction with them (p. 701). 
The stories of the Yeskenski robbery, committed by militiamen (pp. 
946-952); of the Polatti robbery (p. 1056); of the abuse of Mrs. 
Radlich (p. 762); of the cursing of little girls (p. 779); of the abuse 
of other women (pp. 820, 880), are but a few of those that might have 
been told to the committee. There were unreasonable searches like 
those at Mrs. Hall's house (p. 656) and at Mrs. Lowe's (p. 779). 

These abuses turned the original cordial welcome that Gen. Chase 
and the State National Guard received when they first went into the 
field into a feeling of distrust. Is it surprising that the strikers "con- 
sidered that they had less protection since the militia have been in 
the field than they had before that — before they arrived — barring the 
first month" ? (Lawson, p. 296.) One reason for the antagonism 
of many of the officers and privates of the militia toward the strikers 
was that the strikers did not return to work promptly upon the ap- 
pearance of the militiamen, as it had been alleged by the operators 
they would. Provoked at this unwdlUngness on the part of the 
strikers to return to work under conditions which had compelled 
them to strike, the miUtiamen were easily induced to act as strike 
breakers; and from this violation of their proper duties as impartial 
preservers of the peace, they were easily led to other violations 
of law. 



46 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

It had been announced b}^ counsel for the militia: "We A\ill have 
our evidence Y\hen cur time comes'' (p. 977). Although the com- 
mittee afforded Gen. Chase an opportunity to explain all the alleged 
violations of State and Federal laws, he dechned to appear as a wit- 
ness unless he were promised immunity from cross-examination; 
affording thus further evidence of his conviction that he is above the 
usual rules of law. 

VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAWS VIOLATION OF UNITED STATES POSTAL 

REGULATIONS THE TESTIMONY. 

Passing reference ought also to be made to that phase of feudalistic 
control of the southern coal camps, particularly manifest in the viola- 
tion of the Federal laws which the record proves to have been disre- 
garded by the operators with the same indifference manifested 
toward State statutes. 

No effort ^\dll be made to summarize all the testimony on the sub- 
ject. It appears that Federal post offices have been conducted in 
such closed camps of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. as Morley, Tercio, 
Primero, and many others ^dthout any public road reaching the post 
office (p. 486). Primero has about 600 and Tercio about 300 people 
(p. 487). These closed camps are entirely company's property, 
with all equipment and buildings used in connection with, them owned 
by the company (p. 486). Many post offices are also shown to be 
located in the company's stores (p. 212). Witness Murray testified 
that in times of trouble restrictions are thro\Mi around the use of 
such post offices, where there is a possibility of the company's men 
being influenced (p. 1907). In Hastings, it appears that the com- 
pany store manager is also the postmaster (p. 1520), and the road to 
the post office, which was formerly used by the public, is treated as 
private (pp. 1520-1521). 

The interference b}^ the mditia with the delivery of mail clearly 
appears from the record. Witness Clement was denied access to the 
Pryor post office January 12, 1914, (p. 2071). Witness Lawson pro- 
duced exhibits in the form of letters to Mother Jones refused delivery 
through the post office at Trinidad because the addressee was alleged 
to be a military prisoner (p. 226). Witness Potter testified that the 
militia ordered him not to return to the Rugby post office for his mail. 
These are but a few of the numerous instances of direct militia inter- 
ference wdth the delivery of mail shown by the record. The violation 
of the Federal law by at least one of the coal companies was also 
frankly admitted by counsel and the president of the company (p. 
1244). This practice, running counter to postal regulations, con- 
sisted in the sale of bank exchange by the companies when post-office 
money orders were asked of postmasters (pp. 1240, 1244). 

THE LAW AS TO POST OFFICES. 

That the instances cited are in violation of the Federal law will suffi- 
ciently appear from the following brief review : 

The statute on this subject is United States Revised Statutes, sec- 
tion 3995; 5 Federal State annotated, page 911. It is as follows: 

Any person who shall knowingly and ^villflllly obstruct or retard the passage of the 
mail, or any horse, driver, or carrier carrying the same, shall for every such offense be 
punishable by a fine of not more than ?100. 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 47 

(This statute was passed in 1825.) 

In the following case, the defenihmt was indicted under the above 
statute for obstructint^^ the passage of the mail by assaulting a post- 
master in the post office, where mail was ready for delivery. The 
point was raised that this did not constitute obstruction or inter- 
ference with the mail in the sense of the above statute; but the court 
ruled to the contrary, saying in its instructions to the jury: 

I instruct you that by the terms "passage of mails" are meant the transmission of 
mail matter from the time the same is deposited in a -place designated by law or the rules of 
the Post Office Department up to the time when the same is delivered to those to whom it is 
addressed. * * * If you should find from the evidence that the acts done and com- 
mitted by the defendant obstructed or retarded the receiving or delivery of the mail 

matter at the ])ost office in H , as charged in the indictment, you may find the 

defendant guilty. ( U. S. v. Clay pool, 14 Fed., 129; Dist. Ct. Mo., 1S82.) 

As to the issuance of private drafts when Government post-office 
money orders were applied for, the statutes do not seem specifically 
to cover such a situation. The following sections of the money-order 
act, however, seem pertinent: 

All money received for the sale of money orders, including all fees therein * * * 
shall be deemed and taken to be money -order funds, and money in the Treasury of the 
United States. * * * (U. S. Rev. Stat., sec. 4045; 5 Fed. Stat. Ann., p. 949.) 

Every postmaster, assistant, clerk, or other person employed in or connected with the 
business or operation of any money-order office ivho converts to his own use in any way 
ichatever * * * or Qy.ch.2inges ioi other i\\Ti(^& any portion of the money -order funds, 
shall be deemed guilty of embezzlement. * * * (Rev. Stat., sec. 4046.) 

VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAWS A SYSTEM OF PEONAGE. 

The first section of the resolution directs the committee to investi- 
gate 'Svhether or not any system of peonage has been or is being 
maintained in said coal * * * fields." 

THE LAW AS TO PEONAGE. 

What is peonage? The United States statute, passed in 1867, is as 
follows, omitting immaterial matter: 

The holding of any person to service or labor under the system known as peonage 
is abolished and forever prohibited in * * * any * * * Territory or State of 
the United States, and all acts * * * by virtue of which any attempt shall here- 
after be made to establish, maintain, or enforce, directly or indirectly, the voluntary 
or involuntary service or labor of any persons as peons in liquidation of any debt or 
obligation, or otherwise, are declared null and void. (U. S. Rev. Stat., sec. 1990.) 

Every person who holds, arrests, returns, or causes to be held, arrested, or returned, 
or in any manner aids in the arrest or return of any person to a condition of peonage, 
shall be punished by a fine * * * or by imprisonment * * * or by both. 
(U. S. Rev. Stat., sec. 5526.) 

The Federal courts have had frequent occasion to interpret and 
enforce this statute. In Peonage cases (123 Fed., 671) the court 
defined peonage as — 

* * * the exercise of dominion over the persons and liberties of servants by the 
master or employer or creditor, to compel the discharge of an obligation by service or 
labor against the will of the person performing the service. 

In V*S. V. McClellan (127 Fed., 971) the court declared that in 
cases under this statute — 

The substantial inquiry is: Did the accused consign or hold a citizen in a condition 
of involuntary servitude for the purpose of compelling him to work out a real or alleged 



48 CONDITIONS IX THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

obligation? TMs, it done, created a condition of peonage. * * * An unwilling 
servitude, enforced by the master to collect a debt, is to reduce the \-ictim to the con- 
dition of a peon. and. logically, to a condition of peonage. 

Aiid ill charging the grand jury in Peonage cases (136 Fed., 707) 
the Federal judge in Arkansas stated: 

Peonage, within the meaning of this law. is the holding of any person to service or 
labor for the purpose of pacing or liquidating an indebtedness due from the laborer 
or employee to the employer, when such employee desires to leave or quit before the 
debt is paid off. It is wholly immaterial whether the contract whereby the laborer is 
to work out the indebtedness due from him to the employer is entered into voluntarily 
or not. * * * Any attempt on the part of the employer to prevent him from leaving, 
either by force, threats, or intimidation, or by guarding him and locking him up to prevent 
his escape, is, vAthin the meaning of the laws of the United States, an offense. 

Again, m charging the jury in a peonage case the Federal judge of 
South CaroHiia said {V. S. v. Clement^ 171 Fed., 974): 

There may be a system of peonage wholly unattended by any circumstances of 
brutality. * * * There is nothing in the law which forbids voluntary serAice in 
liquidation of debts. * * * but it s unlawful to compel such performance by 
force or by intimidation. ^Miat constitutes force or intimidation is a question of fact, 
and each case must depend on its own circumstances. The character and condition of 
life of the two parties are always to be considered in deciding a question of this nature. 

The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld the constitu- 
tionalitv of the peonage statute, and has defined peonage in the 
leading "^case of Clyatt v. United States (197 U. S., 207, 1904). The 
court there held the statute constitutional under the thirteenth amend- 
ment, prohibitmg involuntary servitude, and defined peonage in these 
words : 

It may be defined as a status or condition of compulsory serA-ice, based upon an 
indebtedness of the peon to the master. The basal fact is indebtedness. 

THE TESTIMOXY AS TO PEOXAGE. 

Bearing in mind the foregoing rulings of the courts: that peonage 
need not be accomplished by brute force, that intimidation is equally 
within the prohibition of the law, and that in determining whether 
intimidation has been exercised the character and condition of life 
of the two parties are always to be considered, let us briefly examine 
the testimony. 

Considering fu'st the evidence relating to conditions prior to the 
present strike, we find Witness Ed^^in V. Brake, chief deputy labor 
commissioner of the State of Colorado, testifying (p. 73) that in the 
1910 strike in the northern field 11 men employed by the Northern 
Fuel Co. made formal complaint to his oflB.ce that they had been 
brought from Chicago under guard, locked in a steel car, without 
bemg told of the strike, and had been kept under guard, with locked 
doors and blinds do\vn, until they reached the mine. Witness Eli M. 
Gross, deputy labor commissioner of Colorado, speaking of official 
reports he had made to his department of an investigation made in 
1910 in the northern field as to complaints of peonage, stated (pp. 
48, 49) that he had found clear evidence that men were benig held 
at work against their ^vill: that he was appealed to by sonje of the 
men to get them out of the camp, and did so. 

One of the mine guards, under the impression that Gross was a 
company oflticial, told him in so many words that his orders were to 
stop anyone attempting to leave the camp; that the foreigners were 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 49 

afraid and would go back wlien he told them to, but that he had more 
trouble with the Americans. Gross says the business and duty of 
the guards was to "run them back"; tliey prevented the nien from 
getting out (p. 64). He found that the pass system was in efl'ect, 
namely, that anybody lea^ang camp was required to get a pass from 
the superintendent; that upon a pass being requested, the superin- 
tendent would try to persuade the workmen not to go, telUng him that 
he would probably be set upon and killed by the strikers. ]f the pass 
was insisted upon, it was usually given, if the absence was for a tem- 
porary purpose only; if the applicant wished to leave permanently, 
the pass was peremptorily refused. 

Of holding workmen at work against their will for the payment of 
alleged debt, since the present strike began, there is a long array of 
mtnesses, opposed for the most part merely by the bald assertions 
of a few of the superintendents and company employees that there 
was no peonage. Several large shipments of men were brought in 
from Pittsburgh; and the stor}^ of those importations of stril e 
breakers, spelled out in the broken sentences of ignorant foreigners, 
shows that from the very moment they boarded the cars, intimidation 
and restraint were exercised by the company employees. Frank 
Ledrianowski (p. 621) told the story of the trip, with locked doors 
and watchmen at either end of the car; mihtiamen boarding the train 
at Trinidad, whence the locked car was taken to Berwind. He tried 
to get aw^ay from the camp, but the soldiers drove him back (p. 628), 
hitting him with a bayonet. 

Frank Vargo (p. 822) was another of the Pittsburgh shipment, 
telling substantial^' the same stor}" of the guarded cars. He, too, 
had a troubled experience in getting away from Tercio and Frederick 
when he wanted to go, one of the mine guards or marshals locking 
him in his shanty. Gicvanni Minniti (p. 1043), another from Pitts- 
burgh, was informed of the strike just before the car reached Trini- 
dad; the car, guarded by militia, was locked and taken to Delagua, 
He made three attempts to get away, being taken back by guards 
or militia, and was informed by the superintendent that he had to 
work until his transportation and board were paid (p. 1045). He 
finally got awa}^ over the mountains. Yittorio Troio confirmed the 
stor}' of the locked doors of the cars from Pittsburgh and guards 
''atf the time watching them" (p. 1144). Vincenzo Spina (p. 1249) 
was also first informed of the strike just before reaching Trinidad 
from Pittsburgh. He wanted to leave at Trinidad, but was afraid 
on account of the soldiers (p. 1252). Put to work at Delagua, he 
tried to get away, but v/as turned back by the soldiers. On another 
attempt he got as far as Hastings, was stopped by the soldiers, put 
to work again, and at last ran away over the mountains to Walsenburg. 

Dominico De Leo was a carpenter in the Pittsburgh shipment (p. 
1262). Informed of the strike just before getting to Trinidad; he 
was sent to Delagua, and there applied repeatedly, in vain, for car- 
penter work. He was afraid to leave, because everybod}^ said that 
if a man tried to get away the soldiers would scare him with their 
guns, and in some ca^es shoot (p. 1264). He finally ran away over 
the hills and walked the long tramp to Walsenburg. 

Restraint on the train is described b}^ Antonio Yansenski (p. 1448). 
He wanted to leave the train when he heard of the strike, but Dominic 

44481—14 4 



50 COXDITIOXS IX THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

told liim •'the strike will be settled when we get there" (p. 1451). 
He saw Dominic grab others by the collar and jerk them back when 
they attemxpted to leave the car. He was told at Delagua that the 
strikers would kill him if he went away from camxp; but he finally 
ran away over the hills to the strikers' colony. Almost identical 
was the experience of Steve Shikara (p. 1452), who was jerked back 
on the train when, hearing of the strike, he tried to get off. After 
loading 29 cars of coal at Delagua, and getting only $3 in scrip, he 
wanted to leave, but was told that the strikers would kill him. 
This gloomy prophecy was proven false by the kindly treatment he 
received at the strikers' camp, which he reached by running away 
over the hills (p. 1454). 

Kazmir Kata (p. 1454), picked up at Pittsburgh, and first informed 
of the strike after they had left Chicago, had never mined coal, knew 
nothing about it, and could get out but one car a day. He asked at 
the office for a pair of shoes, but was refused, with the statement that 
he owed the company for tools and ticket (p. 1455). He was told 
he could not get out of camp without a pass, so he too took the route 
over the hills. 

Even Pietro Troio, one of the four men brought down to the hearing 
in a company automobile, accompanied by the superintendent, 
company marshal, company cigars, and the belligerent and volcanic 
Yamiceiy (who believed a man who refused to work for the company 
was a '' traitore^') admitted that most of the Pittsburgh crowd had 
run away at night, because they had been refused passes down the 
canyon, and were afraid they would be arrested (p. 1133). And 
Yamiceiy himself pictured most vividly, though unconsciously, the 
atmosphere of intimidation which oppressed there poor, ignorant 
immigrants, when he testified (p. 1168) that they all knew that if 
they departed without a pass, leaving any debt with the company, 
warrant would be sworn out, they would be arrested, brought back, 
and put to work with guards until they would be '' square with the 
company." 

Nor are we confined to the testimony of the men themselves. 
Mrs. Marie Del Gado, a boarding-house keeper at the Royal mine, testi- 
fied (p. 652) that at one time in January, 1913, seven Greeks tried to 
get away from camp ; three of them were brought back by the militia, 
taken to the office of the mine, and required to make a settlement 
with the company before they were allowed to go. All the others, 
she says, left in the night. And G. S. Lawrence, a militia lieutenant, 
absolutely confirmed the statement of the miners that they had to 
have a pass from the mine office before they could get out of Berwind 
(p. 1856). If anyone tried to get out without a pass, he was stopped 
and detained until they could telephone up to the mine office or, 
in other instances, they would send him up there accompanied by a 
militiaman. 

Witness John R. Lawson (p. 223) testified to the case of four 
Mexican boys shipped in from Mexico to the mine at Tercio. After 
working about 20 shifts they wanted, for some reason, to leave. The 
guards took the shoes off from the feet of the boys in the attempt to 
prevent their going, and only after walking nearly a mile in the snow 
without shoes to the superintendent's office were they able to get 
their shoes back. 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 51 

Depiily L:\])()r Inspector George R. Howe told (p. 170) of numerous 
conipL.iints of poonaiiv made to his department and investigated 
by him, referring particularly to the cases of the Brock^^tts, of 
Vaughn, and of several foreigners. Wlien on cross-examination he 
was asked to say thiit h'^ did not know whut they were complaining 
about, he replied th.it when men said to him, as these foreigners 
did, "Me try to get out; me can't," he considered it pretty good 
Engh-h and understood it perfectly (p. 171). 

Another group, of which James Adams (p. 114) was one, was brought 
in from Joplin, Mo., on the "land-contract" plan. Tliis witness and 
others described the very close and interesting connection, by adjoin- 
ing ofhces and other apparently closer ties, between the operators' 
employment agent, Copeland, and the firm of Price & O'Neill, which 
sold alleged Colorado land contracts. Copeland's very interesting 
testimony (pp. 1277-1297) with its reluctant admissions on cross- 
examination of 'confidential communications between himself and 
Price as to "promoting propositions" (p. 1288), with his halting 
attempts (p. 1294) to explain Exhibit 77 (p. 2586), in which Price, 
waiting Copeland, hopes that certain public reports "will not cripple 
our standing with your company" — certainly contains sinister sug- 
gestions of tlie use by the operators of a dubious land-selling scheme 
as a bait to lure strike breakers. And the Brockett affidavit, re- 
quested by the committee (p. 53), and fully identified by George R. 
Howe, the deputy labor commissioner who interviewed Brockett 
and helped draw up the affidavit (p. 170) strongly confirms this view. 
Unfortunately this affidavit seems not to be included in the published 
exhibits. The land company admitted to the witness Hickey 
(pp. 202-203) that it had only an option on land 25 miles from Ala- 
mosa — far from the coal mines. Investigation by the United States 
district attorney led them to promise not to do any more business 
"until this thing is over" (p. 203). 

Returning to James Adams's testimony (pp. 114-128, 133-139), 
it is in effect that 53 men, women, and children were shipped from 
Joplin in a special car, upon either end of which, when it reached 
La Junta, Colo., were stationed militiamen, more of whom boarded 
the train at Trinidad and accompanied it to Delagua. Adams did 
not enjoy working as a "scab," and tried to get away after a few 
days, but was driven back by the militia and put to work again. 
Appl;ying for his money, he was told at the ofiice that he owed the 
company 19.80 for tools. A few^ days later he got away while the 
militia were drunk, and walked 20 miles through the snow, con- 
tracting pneumonia in the process. 

Interesting light as to the attitude of the operators toward the 
state of facts brought out in the testimony thus briefly reviewed 
is cast not only by the remarkable incident of Yamicely and the 
four men he was brought in to accompany (p. 1157), but even more 
significantly by the treatment accorded the State official, Eli M. 
Gross, deputy labor commissioner. This official tells (p. 65) of an 
investigation he was ordered to make in January, 1914, of complaints 
of peonage in the southern field. He visited camps of each of the 
so-called big three companies (C. F. & I., Victor- Am^erican, and 
Rocky Mount Fuel), and in each instance the superintendents 
absolutely refused to let him interview the men or to make any 



52 COXDITIOXS IX THE COAL MIXES OF COT.ORADO. 

investigation, though he exhibited his credentials as a state official. 
In one instance he was referred to the militia officer (p. 65), who said 
that they, the militia, would not pass anybody out until they had a 
clearance from the company, and when asked why that was, answered, 
''Because they might owe the company something." This account 
was fully confirmed by Deputy George R. Howe (p. 14), who accom- 
panied Gross. Howe also told of a conversation they had (through 
inadvertence, apparently, of the company and militia) with a colored 
miner whom they met in the road near the Forbes mine. This man 
said, ''There is no need of trying to get out of here; I owe them too 
much. Everybody owes the coal company here, and nobody can 
get out'' (p. 165). 

The only attempt of the operators to excuse their brazenly defiant 
attitude toward the State officials. Gross and Howe, was the fact 
that these inspectors were accompaned by an Italian interpreter, 
whom the operators suspected of havipor union leanings end who, 
they feared, might talk to the Italian strikebreakers and urge them 
to leave. 

Can there be any doubt that the operators deliberately intimidated 
the men to remain at the mines until they had worked out the alleged 
debt incurred for the privilege of being herded into the mines in 
locked and guarded trains? Is it open to question, on this record, 
that they used actual force not only to get them to the mines, but to 
keep them there; and that where actual force was not employed an 
atmosphere of fear and intimidation, fostered by the presence of 
the armed guards and militia and of such men as the ffi-e-eating 
braggart Yamicely, was purposely created by the companies ? 

VIOLATIOX OF COLOPvADO LAW PROHIBITIXG FALSE ADVERTISIXG. 

Another subject closely bound up, both in fact and in law, ^ith 
that of peonage is the clearly estabhshed violation by the operators 
of the Colorado law prohibitino: false advertising for strike breakers, 
and also prohibiting th'^ use of armed guards for the transportation 
of such deceived emplovees. 

By Colorado S ssion Laws, 1911 (p. 486, 3 Milb Ann. Stat., sec. 
4479), in force July 2, 1911, it was made unlawful for any person or 
corporation to induc-^. influ nee, or persuado workmen to change 
from one plac-:^ to anoth'^r in this State or to bring workmen into this 
Stat'^ by mrans of false r:preS':ntations or fals-^ advertising: concern- 
ing the kind of work, the amount of comppnsation, th-^ sanitary con- 
ditions, or the rxistence or nom xistence of a strike. It was further 
provided that failure to stat'^ that there is a strike when a strike in 
fact exists shall b^ deemed false advertisement. The use of armed 
guards to transport such employees within the State or to bring them 
into the Stat<^ is made a f-dony. 

Th'^ victims of the Pittsburgh shipment, whose t- stim.ony has been 
bri'^fly reviewed abov % were practically unanimous in saying that 
they did not know until Trinidad was nearly r- ach- d that a strike 
was in progress. The operators' dcfms^^ invariably was th^- produc- 
tion of a pap^r, purporting to have b'^en signed by the various wit- 
nesses, acknowl^dgfing that thry kn-^w th^re was a strik'^ and were 
nevertheless wilhng to work. Let two insta,nces from the record 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 53 

speak as to th'> valuo of th so papci-s. Stcvo Shikara, a Polv^ (p. 1453), 
wrote his name on a pi c- of paper in Pittsbur<^h. Th'^ record states: 

He said "sign" and I signed. What I signed I don't know. * * * No one told 
me (what was in the paper). Wlien I found out that there was a strike I tried to get off 
and they wouldn't let me. * * * I know when it is Polish — Polish literature, but 
I don't know this (Exhibit 88). I can sign my own name. I can not read. 

And Walt r Pr (lovich, th'^ int rprv t r (p. 1457), t'>stifi(-d that this 
Vv ry Exhibit 38, si<i-n'Hl by this Pol, Shikara, was in the Slavonian 
lan£:uage, differ' nt from Poli'^i, and that th<^ Polish m' n, ev< n if they 
could read th- ir own language, could not understand or read this 
pa])(U' in Slavonian. 

The Witness Alike Pincheck, coming from Belahas, in Austria, and 
speaking Slavish, signed a paper acknowedging notice of the strike 
(Ex. 45, p. 2573), which he attempted to read to the committee, but 
finally had to give up, saying (p. 1066), ''That is no right Slavish. 
That is no good Slavish." He finally concluded it was in Bulgarian. 
It is, to say the least, rather curious that this man, who was more 
than ordinarily intelligent, and demonstrated (p. 1067) that he could 
read English readily enough, was asked by the operators' agent to sign, 
and did sign, this paper in a language which he could not read and 
did not understand. 

Dominico De Leo (p. 1266) says that about 15 miles out of Trinidad 
the company's representatives on the train carried around a little 
hand table from one seat to another, and had the men sign; that he 
was half asleep and hungry when he sigaed it ; that he first knew of 
the strike when he read the paper he signed. When pressed as to 
wh}^ he signed it, he replied (p. 1267): 

Because I was told that if I wouldn't work I would have to pay for my transporta- 
tion. I didn't have a cent. I was forced to. I was compelled to sign it. I didn't 
have anything to eat. 

Are not these instances — and there are many others in the record — 
eloquent with proof that the operators failed to keep even the letter, 
much less the spirit, of the Colorado antideception act ? And do 
they not forcibly suggest the wisdom and necessity of a Federal act 
of a similar character ? 

DEPLORABLE GENERAL CONDITIONS. 

The record is filled with diverse testimony showing other general 
conditions of the most burdensome sort long existing and out of 
which have grown manifold grievances of the coal miners. It will 
not be practicable or necessary to review these in detail. Broadly 
speaking, conditions as to timbering, gas, the laying of tracks, water, 
shot-firing, lamps and dust, the doing of dead work without pay, 
might be separately and at length considered. We shall content 
ourselves at this time, at least, with a passing reference to such 
matters, important though they are to the men actually engaged in 
coal mining. The frequency and fatality of dust explosions has 
already been partially considered, and of this the record speaks 
fully (pp. 21, 28, 30, 35, 39, 43). Supt. Weitzel confessed to the 
seriousness of this danger in Colorado (p. 1783). The statement 
was made that Starkville was a peculiarly dangerous mine on this 
account, and that it had not been sprinkled prior to one of its serious 
explosions (p. 870). Witness Marzer testified that the sprinkling 



54 COXDITIOXS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

after the explosion was only done when the Colorado Fuel & Iron 
Co.'s inspector was coming (p. 870). Witness Fyler testified to the 
danger of gas at Tabasco, and insisted that underorganized condi- 
tions the workers could have protected themselves, as they were 
not allowed to do by the company for which they were working 
(pp. 1094-1095). The same witness testified to the hardship con- 
nected with the huntmg for props and rails and due to the absence 
of a dead-work scale in Colorado (p. 1091) . This testimony and much 
beside along the line of general grievances of the miners was based 
on a long practical experience in Colorado as a coal miner (p. 1091). 
Witness Zanatell gave considerable testimony showing the exisence 
of different kinds of gas at Forbes (pp. 1079, 1086-1087). 

He further stated that he made a practice of supervising the 
timbering vrhile mine foreman, and that during all the time he was 
mine foreman he never had a man hurt or killed (p. 1079). This 
witness, of course, in a measure sustains the report of Coal Mine 
Inspector Dabymple as to preventable character of many accidents. 
Witness Dalrymple testified clearly as to the pre vent ability of dust 
explosions by wetting down the mines and by cleaning up undue 
accumulations of dust and fine coal (p. 39). Witness Ward testified 
as to the bad condition of the air and poor timbering, and the danger 
of open lighting in his experience (p. 855); and much testimony 
along similar lines, which, as stated, it will hardly be necessary to 
review, was given bv witnesses Game (p. 1106), Hammond (p. 998), 
Henness (p. 1927), McCune (p. 2258), Mcintosh (p. 878), Peet (p. 
1943), Pickens (p. 1946), and others. We submit that this testimony 
overwhelmingly shows that the conditions under which the work- 
men in Colorado toiled prior to the present strike were onerous, 
oppressive, and dangerous to an intolerable degree. It certainly 
is not to be wondered at that in the presence of conditions of this 
sort men — and especially those previously affiliated with unions — 
turn for relief to organization. Witness Fyler, a man of marked 
intelligence, stated that he found conditions in Colorado those of 
^'slavery," and in this connection he remarked: 

I know that the United Mine Workers took care of all of its people. They have 
buried their own dead. They have looked after the widows and orphans to a cer- 
tain extent. I have known a lot of mine camps in that State (Ohio) that sustained 
their own lodges, built churches for itself — a positive fact — that it has been a great 
educational institution for the workmen (p. 1.091). 

REPORT OF FEDERAL GRAND JURY. 

In the face of such testimony as to miners' grievances as causes of 
the Colorado strike, attention ma}/ surely be directed to the following 
extracts from, the findings (however unwarranted in other respects) 
of the Federal grand jury at Pueblo, Colo, (record, pp. 2554-2555) : 

In addition to our investigation of specific violations of Federal statutes, respecting 
which indictments have been returned and regarding which comment is unnecessary, 
we have discovered the existence of many miners' grievances that appear to be involved 
in the strike in one way and another. 

We were very favorably impressed with the high degree of intelligence and the 
general mental attitude of many of the witnesses who were striking miners. They 
exhibited, in numerous instances, a remarkable spirit of justice and fairness. From 
the testimony of many witnesses the operators appear to have been somewhat remiss 
in endeavoring to secure and hold the good will and confidence of the mine workera 
and to promote their comfort, and in leaving their duty in this respect to be performed 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 55 

by minor company employees, whose efforts are often directed more particularly to 
accruing a large mine production at low cost — in many instances to the real detriment 
of the miners — thanfurtheringtheAvelfare of employees. * * * The State laws have 
not been so enforced as to give all persons concerned the benefits which are derivable 
therefrom. * * * Many camp marshals, whose appointment and salaries are con- 
trolled by local companies, have exercised a system of espionage and have resorted to 
arbitrary powers of police control, acting in the capacity of judge and jury and passing 
the sentence, ' ' Down the canyon for you," (meaning thereby that the miner so addressed 
was discharged and ordered to leave the camp), upon miners who had incurred the 
enmity of the superintendent or j)it boss for having complained of a real grievance or 
for other cause. These, taken with brutal assaults by camp marshals upon miners, 
have produced general dissatisfaction among the latter. * * * 

Miners generally fear to complain of real grievance.; because of the danger of their 
discharge or of their being placed in unfavorable positions in the mines. 

Some phases of the scrip system are apparently still in use, and are the .source of com- 
plaint from many miners. * * * 

Notwithstanding the statement made by the coal companies that they are desirous 
of promoting the employment of checkweighmen, many miners apparently believe 
that employees have frequently been discharged because they have n)ade requests 
to mine ofhcers for the institution of some system of checking the weights by the 
miners. Operators of coal mines testified that the problem of securing correct weights 
and of obtaining an absolutely honest, capable, and impartial weighman is difficult. 
A corrupt weighman has been known to deduct a large number of pounds from the 
account of a miner to whom he was unfriendly and add it to the account of a miner whonfi 
whom he wished to befriend. It does not appear that operators knowingly profit by 
false weights. 

THE DENIAL OF SOCIAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND POLITICAL JUSTICE. 

To state the situation in another way, we confidently affirm that 
the whole record as to conditions in Colorado prior to and during, 
and causes leading up to, the present strike discloses a denial of 
social, industrial, and poUtical justice, from almost every standpoint, 
to a degree shocking under our boasted civilization. Rev. Mc- 
Donald classified Colorado's difficulties as industrial, social, religious, 
poUtical, and educational (p. 2019). Grouping educational and 
rehgious grievances under the social head, we have left the broad 
classification first mentioned. The educational and religious diffi- 
culties in the coal camps are concisely dealt with in part by the witness 
last named (pp. 2022-2027). Grave as they are they will not be 
specifically reviewed because they appear to be incidental to the gen- 
eral and more vital ''wrongs" already enumerated. 

We have examined the feudalistic regime and its autocratic asser- 
tiveness along all lines. We have considered the frank way in which 
constitutional rights have been denied. We have surveyed the utter 
recklessness with which laws, both State and National, have been 
violated by the coal companies, and we have enumerated some of the 
many phases of social and industrial injustice shown by the record. 

It remains for us to make some comment on the political domina- 
tion of southern Colorado, to which is attributed so large a part of 
the blame for the conditions reviewed. It was definitely and affirma- 
tively charged in the hearing at Trinidad by Mr. Lawson that the 
pohtical corruption in Las Animas and Huerfano Counties for many 
years — 

was one of the vital causes leading up to this strike * * * because without political 
freedom the miners of this field might as well not have any law on the statute books at 
all (p. 1307). 

Mr. McLennan added: 

Those conditions we have repeatedly brought to the attention of the officials. When 
we couldn't get redress from the district attorneys for this county we took it to the 



56 CO]N^DITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLOKADO. 

Attorney General. I cite one instance. * * * We took the matter to Gov. Shaf- 
roth, and Goa^ Shafroth requested the Attorney General to investigate it, and he made 
an investigation, but after we found out the manner in which they selected the juries 
ill Huerfano County we decided it was absolutely useless to carry the case any further, 
and \vithout, as I stated, going into the political situation you could not get the reason 
that caused this strike; and I want to say * * * that this is not a partisan political 
position. There is no political party that will assume responsibility for the politics 
of Las Animas or Huerfano County (p. 1309). 

Mr. Welborn, president of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., frankly 
raised this serious issue by reading into the record (p. 514) a notice 
signed by himself, issued in the fall election of 1912, to mine super- 
intendents, store managers, and other camp officials, advising them 
that ''Everyone of its employees shall be and feel free to vote as he 
sees fit," accompanied by the denial of the political activity of the 
company (p. 514). For the rest, the record overwhelmingly shows, 
vriih the exception of the 1912 campaign (when the extraordinary 
circular referred to was issued, as if in confession of prior corporation 
activity), the persistent and baneful interference of the large coal 
companies of the State in the governmental activities of southern 
Colorado. Witness Garner, a prominent resident of southern Colo- 
rado (pp. 1297, 1312); Dr. Beshoar, another citizen of high standing 
in the same section (p. 1317); and United States Postmaster Vigil 
(p. 1335) leave no doubt on a candid mind as to the justice of Mr. 
McLennan's grave indictment and as to the complete subordination 
of government in southern Colorado to the great coal companies for 
years without number. Corroborative evidence of the highest order 
has already appeared in the record in the shomng made as to mine 
accidents and coroner's juries. In Huerfano County the situation 
lias been even more tvrannical and nauseating to every lover of free 
government. Maj. Coan (p. 1971), Dr. Abdun Nur (pp. 2049-2050), 
Witness Mitchell (p. 1987), and Witness McQuarrie (p. 2375), long a 
deputy sheriff in Huerfano County under Jeff Farr, notorious as the 
ruler of that ''kingdom" (p. 1983), and others, by their extraordinary 
testimony, leave no doubt on a candid mind of the truth of their 
charges showing the long-continued overthrow of constitutional 
government through the agency of large coal companies in southern 
Colorado. But if any doubt remains, it certainly must be dispelled 
by the speeches of Judge Northcutt, general counsel for the coal 
operators, and of the present district judge of the third judicial dis- 
trict of Colorado, as reported without contradiction from, the fall 
election of 1912. At Lamar, Colo., October 10, 1912 (pp. 2586-2590), 
Judge Northcutt, among other things, said: 

You who have been attending conventions for the last 10 years in Colorado know 
\'ery well, if you are honest with yourselves and your neighbors, that you can not put 
ypur finger on a single item of cou mention legislation in the way of a platform or a nom- 
ination in which you were instrumental. * * * ^^^lat have you done? You have 
gone to Denver and gotten as near the inner circle at the Brown Palace Hotel as you 
could to find out what the "powers" had mapped out for you to do, and if you had too 
much manhood to vote, you sat there silently and came home ashamed to meet your 
constituents, lest they should ask you what you had done and how you did it. These 
are facts which every man who has been going to conventions knows to be true. I 
don't know just exactly how hard the roller has run down here. I know it has been 
here, because I ha^'e seen its tracks. I know that some of your siipp osedly leading 
])'jliticians have made their solemn pledges within the last six months tl;at they would 
do certaiii things; said that no power on earth could withhold them from it, but when 
the time came they said they had to play politics and did exactly the opposite from 
v.'hat they said they would do. 1 think that operation is comparatively light down 
here in this valley, because, if you will permit me to suggest, farming communities 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OK COLORAPO. 57 

are not run quite so much like a drove of sheep as the mining communities and com^ 
munities in the large cities. The farmer will refuse, because he feels independent and 
feels he is not to be driven as a sheep, and you people are fortunate in being located 
in a farming community where you can get indorsement for that which is good, whether 
some man up in Denver says you may have it or not. * * * Let me tell you how they 
do it, because, as a matter of fact, you are really affected and you are interested in it, 
and I will endeavor to tell you why. Up there a few men get together in a room some 
days before the i-on vent ion. They have already fixed up whom the delegates to the 
convention shall be. They have probably given the local superintendent of the mines 
the number of delegates to which that community will be entitled. They do not tell 
him whom to bring. He knows he is to select a certain mimber of delegates who are 
to come in and follow the dictati(^n of a single man whose name is giverl to them before 
they leave. He goes around and picks out Jim Archuleta and some others, and says 
to them, ''I want you to go down to a convention to-morrow, down to Trinidad to' a 
convention, and you see Mr. So-and-so and do as he tells you.*' Knowing that these 
delegates will conie in and do as they are told, a meeting of four or five leaders is held 
and they proceed to make the slate. "We will take for county clerk So-and-so; he is 
a good man for the purpose." Some other man says, "But still, I think probably some 
time within the last 8 or 10 months he had some trouble with some pit boss," and there 
is just a suspicion if the company likes him. He isn't right with the company and they 
don't Avant him; he goes off the slate. And so it is from bottom to top the candidates 
are selected, not with a view to their fitness, not with a view to their ability to discharge 
their duty, not \vith a view to their integrity, but "are, they satisfactory to the com- 
pany?" If they are, that settles it. * * * And they have a majority of your con- 
ventions, and when they come to select delegates they select them in the same way. 
They send them in there to nominate, regardless of your wishes, for the office of district 
judge or State senator the man whom the companies want, and if you don't like it you 
will ha^-e to take it. * * * 

I am going to say just a word to you about another political candidate. He is here 
present to-night. He has probably enjoyed a practice as extensive as any man in 
the southern part of Colorado; and let me tell you something which you probably don't 
know: He is the one man in the practice of law in the third judicial district who has 
had the coiu-age when some unfortunate widow or brother has come to him whose 
only support has had his life snapped out on the railroad— he is the one man in the 
practice of law in the third judicial district who has had the courage to say, "You 
have got a case, and we will go into it for you, and we will recover for you if we have to 
fight it to the court of the last resort in the land. " Most of the lawyers are afraid to do 
that because they are afraid the company will blacklist them and be against them 
politically and every other way, * * * 

On the same occasion Judge A. W. McHendrie even more concisely 
summed up the well-known political conditions complained of and 
disclosed by the record, as follows (p. 2600) : 

I could take up where Judge Northcutt left off and go on and talk Jo you until 
you were overcome with weariness and tell you of conditions that obtain in the western 
part of this district in Las Animas and Huerfano Counties. I could tell you * * * 
the day never came when we could even procure a delegate to a convention to nomi- 
nate a justice of the peace until the chairman or some one in the party telephoned to 
Denver and got the 0. K. of Cass Herrington on that delegate, and Cass Herrington, 
as you know, is the political manager of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. There hasn't 
been a man nominated in the last two years at least, with the single exception of a 
Senator, on the Republican ticket that didn't first receive the O. K, of those indi- 
viduals in Denver, and the only reason that that man was nominated was that they 
held the convention in Bent County and they wouldn't let the Las Animas delegation 
vote. * -^ * 

It is no wonder that in the presence of sober accusations and con- 
fessions of this public character Judge Northcutt stated to the congres- 
sional committee that the operators, in rebuttal, did not ''propose 
to introduce a syllable of testimony, except possibly to introduce 
the returns of the last election * * *'"' (p. 1355). Maj. Co an 
expressed the opinion, from which no well4nformed, disinterested 
citizen of Colorado dissents, that the condition in southern Colorado 
amounts to the deprivation of constitutional rights (p. 1982). Labor 
Commissioner Brake voiced the same personal view (p. 92). On 



58 COXDITIOXS IX THE COAL MIXES OF COLOEADO. 

this subject, however, opinions need not be multipHed; the record is 
the best evidence. 

We shall end our consideration of the revolutionar}' consequences 
of the selfish domination of political conditions and governmental 
agencies by reference to one of its typical illustrations. Witness Ball 
(p. 1998) testified to the breaking of his jaw T\T.thout provocation by 
Deputy Sheriff Louis ^liller February 1, 1914. The clerk of the dis- 
trict court, T. M. Hudson, produced the records of that court (p. 
2000), showing that of the 12 jurors who subsequently tried Deputy 
Sheriff Miller for the assault, with resulting acquittal, at least 7, and 
possibly 8, were fellow deputy sheriffs. He added (p. 2001) that 12 
of the 24 jurors summoned were fellow deputy sheriffs ^\dth Miller, 
and that only 3 of the 15 jurors sworn were challenged at the trial 
to obtain the proper number of jurors (p. 2002). The same witness, 
subsequently testifying, described the prevalent and long-existing 
method of jugghng ^^dth the selection of jurors in Huerfano County. 
He stated (p. 2059) that out of a list of jurors of approximately 300 
names certified by the county commissioners in January, 1913, 185 
were duphcated in making up a new fist; that (p. 2060) out of ap- 
proximately 300 names in the last four fists similarly certified, 135 
names had been certified every time, 66 names had been certified on 
three of the last four lists, and 37 twice on the last four fists. He 
added that on the last list 11 names were of nonresidents, 3 names 
w^ere of persons who had died, and 2 of pei^ons who are deaf, and 
that 43 were the names of deputy sheriffs. He also added that five 
of the lists contained less than 300 names, and that one fist contained 
as few as 160 names, another 190, and another 196 names (p. 2061). 
It is difficult to conceive disclosures as to the practical oj)eration of 
courts where justice is alleged to be dispensed more at variance with 
commonly accepted notions of constitutional government. Without 
pursuing such recitals further, we content ourselves by quoting the 
optimistic suggestions of Witness Abdun Nur (p. 2051): 

By Mr. Byrn^es: 

Q. AMiere did you say you came from? — A. From Syria. 

Q. If this place is as bad as that, don't you think you would be safer in Syria? — A. 
I think this kind of conditions can't last much longer. * * * 

Q. But you hope it will change; that is why you are staying? — A. I hope it wilL 
I am sure it is going to. 

CONCLUSION. 

No earnest citizen can turn from the mere summary and classifica- 
tion of this committee's absorbing record of human conflict^ sus- 
pended laws and constitutions, accentuated personal misery, and 
injustice prolonged through years without a new view of the duties 
and obligations of the civilization in which we live, and the relation 
to modern industry which government must more and more definitely 
sustain. It is clear that every problem of labor and capital in the 
conduct of present-day business is as deeply rooted in the coal min- 
ing conditions of Colorado as in the older portions of America and in 
Europe itself. Colorado's problems, while in some respects more 
acute in manifestation and in backgroimd are essentially one with 
those of the coal-mining industry everywhere, and call for the same 
compelling remedies. The national character of the industrial war 
in Coloraclo is as e^^dent as the need of national solution, to supple- 



CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 59 

ment State remedies. At the very outset, we fiiul the interlocking 
of national forces of labor and capital. Interstate contributions of 
funds sustain organized labor in its demands for new and enforced 
laws and for the recognition of labor's right to organization and col- 
lective bargaining. 

Interstate shipments of workers, of strike breakers, of arms and 
ammunition, of gunmen, and soldiers of fortune, are proven and con- 
fessed; and, to crown the disclosures, citizejis of various States, 
including such financial spokesmen as Mr. Rockefeller, concede their 
ownership of the capital invested and disclaim all conscientious 
scruples or responsibility, while denying even a migratory knowledge 
of the tragic conditions revealed in the failure of the great trust con- 
fided by modern society to their indifferent care. 

Surely, organized government is the only power competent to deal 
wnth a situation so complex and fundamental. Society's rights are 
suj)reme. Capital and labor alike must subordinate their special 
claims to the communal welfare. This doctrine, as we have seen, 
possesses no novelty. It is deeply rooted in the law and inextricably 
interwoven wTth the history of government. Industrial development 
has no clearer lesson than this: That to the degree in which laws fail 
to establish economic justice men will organize in self-protection, and 
organized capital, arming itself and its supporters for that declaration 
of war which is, by all right, a function of the State itself, will add 
violent oppression to that grievous poverty which is the enduring 
burden of the workers of the world. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR LEGISLATION. 

Reviewing the w^hole record, we venture to recommend the imme- 
diate enactment of Federal legislation, carrying the severest penalties 
for violations, along the following lines: 

1. Rigid prohibition of interference with United States money 
orders, mails, and post offices, protecting the inviolability of corre- 
spondence, requiring free public access to post offices, fixing unequivo- 
cal Federal jurisdiction over the same, and maintaining pubhc rights 
of way to and from the same for any and all users. 

2. New statutory definitions of peonage, including interstate move- 
ments of workers, and forbidding any system of forced labor for the 
working out of any debt, as in violation of pubhc morality. 

3. A Federal antideception law, forbidding misrepresentation, 
fraud, or force in foreign and interstate employment of workers. 

4. The prohibition of interstate shipments of workers in strike dis- 
turbances to take the place of strikers. 

5. The prohibition of the interstate movement of guards, gunmen, 
and private detectives, and of the interstate shipment of firearms and 
explosives for the maintenance of private war, whether during or in 
anticipation of strike disturbances. 

6. The prohibition of arrest, trial, or conviction of persons, or the 
taking of property without charge, notice, and due opportunity to 
defend, under judicial conditions, with clear legislative definitions of 
generally recognized constitutional rights. 

7. The rigid supervision of all corporations doing interstate business 
and their Federal licensing, with power to revoke when required by 
the public welfare. 



60 CONDITIONS IN THE COAL MINES OF COLORADO. 

8. The prohibition of interlocking directorates and of ''dummy" 
directors for corporations engaged in interstate commerce, with severe 
personal penalties attaching to individual officers for corporate viola- 
tions of law. 

9. Full legal recognition of labor's right to organize, with prohibi- 
tion of discrimination against organized labor and its products in 
interstate commerce ; also full legal recognition of labor's right to do 
collective bargaining with capital operating collectively. 

10. The unqualified fixing Of the status of coal mining as a pubhc 
utiUty. 

11. Strong Federal provisions for arbitration in labor disputes, 
involving public utihties doing interstate business, with continuing 
service to the pubhc, subject to fines for violation, pending an 
attempt at Federal arbitration. 

12. Provision for the taking over under law of the management 
and operation by the Government of pubhc utihties doing an inter- 
state business for the benefit of society, on just terms, pending settle- 
ment of industrial controversies. 

Respectfully submitted. 

E. P. CosTiGAN, and 
James H. Brewster, 
Special Counsel before the Congressional Committee. 
Horace N. Hawkins, 
Attorney for the United Mine Worlcers. 

Denver, Colo., May f 1914-- 

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